I get it. You think engagement photos are stupid. I too once thought engagement photos were completely pointless. I mean, why do we need to photograph ourselves in between getting engaged and getting married? Isn’t it enough that our wedding will be professionally photographed?
We just celebrated our 4th wedding anniversary yesterday and our wedding photography package with Matt Kennedy came with an engagement session. It turns out, engagement sessions may be more useful than you think! Here are 5 reasons why you should consider having engagement photos done.
- IT ACTS AS A PRACTICE ROUND SO YOU ARE MORE COMFORTABLE IN FRONT OF THE CAMERA ON YOUR WEDDING DAY
Back when we got engaged, we had never been professionally photographed together. We felt awkward AF in front of the camera. It can be difficult to try and act natural in front of the lens if you’re not used to it! An engagement session allows you to get comfortable having your photo taken before the big day. The photo below is one of the first photos we had taken during our shoot. Matt asked us to walk towards him and even that made us feel silly. What you are seeing is real laughter caused by real awkwardness :P. However, by the end of the shoot we were much more relaxed!
2. IT ALLOWS YOU AND YOUR PHOTOGRAPHER TO GET TO KNOW EACH OTHER
Aside from your partner, you spend most of your wedding day with your photographer so it’s important to pick someone you connect with! An engagement session allows your photographer to learn about your personalities and figure out which poses work best for you. When you receive your engagement gallery, hopefully you will love the photos and it will confirm that you made the right decision picking a photographer! Alternatively, if you don’t love your photos or you didn’t jive well with your photographer then you still have time to explore other options before the big day.
3. YOU’LL HAVE PROFESSIONAL PHOTOS FOR WEDDING ITEMS SUCH AS SAVE THE DATES, INVITATIONS AND WEBSITES
Your engagement photos can serve as double duty for wedding related items such as your wedding website and guestbook. Consider having your engagement photos taken well before your wedding so that you have time to use them for save the dates and invitations. We used our engagement photos in our wedding slideshow, our guestbook, and our button wedding favors.
I also thought it would be funny to turn one of our engagement photos into a stamp that we used to personalize our cocktail napkins but it turned out to be mildly terrifying LOL. And for some reason Craig looks fine but my face looks ginormous… do I really look like that?
4. YOU CAN TEST OUT YOUR HAIR AND MAKEUP BY SCHEDULING YOUR TRIAL FOR THE SAME DAY
Let your hair and makeup trial do double duty by scheduling your engagement photos on the same day. You’ll be able to see how your hair and makeup turn out in photos and can voice any concerns before the big day. TIP: Consider going out for a nice dinner after the shoot since you’re all dolled up!
5. YOU’LL ENJOY LOOKING BACK ON YOUR PHOTOS AND YOUR EXPERIENCE TOGETHER
Engagement photos are less formal than wedding photos so they tend to be more creative, lighthearted and fun. We decided to include a giant LOVE ball in our shoot and it didn’t go quite as planned. We tried to inflate it using a hair dryer plugged into Matt’s van but it kept blowing the fuse! So we stopped by Hopcott’s and filled it up there instead. The ball was huge so Matt sat in the back of Craig’s truck holding on to the giant inflated ball as we headed to the cranberry fields but the strap broke and the ball flew out of the truck into a ditch. Matt and Craig used some branches to try and get it back and unfortunately we ended up with some rips in the ball. We tried our best to have fun with our slightly deflated LOVE ball but hey, it’s a funny story at the very least!
We also got the photo below printed and it is part of a gallery wall in our living room!
I’m glad that we decided not to skip our engagement session. It ended up being so much more valuable than I thought it would be and it was a fun experience too! I hope this info helps you decide if an engagement session would be worthwhile for you!
xoxo Bev
Photos: Matt Kennedy Photography
Hair: Lida of Iconic Hair Studio
Makeup: Faces by Nat