Tips For Planning Your Engagement Photos
HOW TO PLAN YOUR ENGAGEMENT SHOOT!
You’re ENGAGED, woohoo!!! But, now what?!
Here is a guide to planning and preparing for your engagement photos.
Why Engagement Photos Matter?
Having engagement photos taken by a professional photographer is important for a few reasons:
Gets you comfortable and acclimated to having professional images taken before your wedding or elopement.
You get to meet your photographer
Connecting with your partner
Most couples say they feel so connected
Images for Save the dates for your wedding or elopement announcements
9 Tips For Planning Your Engagement Photos
1. How To Not Look Awkward
Be yourselves
Easy to say until you’re on camera right, as someone who takes professional photos of people for a living, I too immediately get awkward and forget what to do with my hands, legs and face in front of a camera.
Hire a photographer who you connect and feel comfortable with
Having a photographer who really connects with you and your partner, as well as focuses on making you and your partner comfortable is so important. You, your partner and the photographer are in this together and have to work as a team to make your engagement photos amazing. Knowing how stressful this whole experience can be, I make it a point to be a calming and silly presence for you and your partner to be able to relax and be yourselves during your session.
Don't hold back
If you feel like kissing your partner, picking them up, running down the beach, jumping in the water, breaking out in a dance, stopping to take in a scene–whatever it is–JUST DO IT!! (did you just read this in a Shia LaBeouf voice tho? Be honest!)
These make up some of the best engagement photos of all time because they are fun, spontaneous, emotional and reflect how you two naturally interact with each other.
The goal is to get pretty photos of the two of you, sure. But the REAL secret ingredient to incredible engagement images is getting photos that look like YOU. The two of you already know how you like to hold hands, kiss, explore together, have fun and be real. So bring that to your engagement session.
Icebreaker Poses For Your Engagement Photos
These quick and easy poses will help you both loosen up on camera because they require no pressure to look or be a certain way, they simply have the two of you interacting with each other and your environment.
Hold hands and face each other
Just look into your partner's eyes and really Focus on each other ignoring everyone around you.Hug it out
Hug each other like you haven’t seen each other in a month. Let all the stress and anxiety melt away in each other's arms. This is my go to pose when just getting started.Hold hands and explore the area
Grab your partner's hand and walk around taking in the sights, sounds and smells of your environment.
Simply wandering around with your partner is a great place to start. You can both soak in the views, relax and just exist in this place together.
2. Pick A Beautiful Location
Your location is pretty dang important. It’s the setting of your engagement session experience as well as the backdrop of your photos.
Do you want to explore somewhere new or with a lot of meaning?
Somewhere new
Going on an adventure somewhere new together is always fun and a great way to build those core memories together. Are you planning on traveling somewhere together for a vacation? Do you want to do your engagement photos there? Maybe you want to plan a trip around your session.
Somewhere meaningful
Do the two of you have a special place you love to be together? Somewhere that you both feel so connected and in love. Maybe it's a local park where you walk your dog everyday, or where y’all got engaged. Choosing somewhere you know you love is a solid choice.
Feeling Spontaneous?
Why not play a little adventure roulette by grabbing a map, (world, country or state) close your eyes and randomly point to a spot!
What do you want your photos to look like?
Maybe you want to feel tiny in a larger than life landscape like the endless mountain vistas in Montana. Or perhaps you see yourselves having fun wandering around your local state fair.
What fuels your adventures? Are you drawn to the ocean, glaciers, old growth forests, or just outdoor spaces in general? Knowing the type of landscape that you both love exploring can help narrow down the where.
Permits and Rules
Does your short list of locations require permits for either your photographer or for your photoshoot? Knowing this ahead of time can be helpful when deciding on a location, if there’s a 3 month application process, but you want to have your engagement session next month, then that might not be the perfect spot.
Are there any rules at any of the locations you're considering that might limit your adventure ideas like not allowing bonfires or pets?
Does all this sound confusing? Don’t worry, when you work with us, we help you with all the location guides, permits, logistics, plan b’s, all of it!
3. Make It An Adventure
It’s WAY more fun to plan an activity you both enjoy in a place you love for your engagement photos! Something that will allow you both to be present and feel more connected. It makes it feel a lot more like a date versus a photoshoot!
What do you both love to do together? Can you do that activity or bring anything to your engagement session to incorporate it into the experience.
Here are some adventure ideas for your engagement photo session:
Hiking
Kayaking/sup/canoe
Playing games
Swimming
Bowling
Brewery
Explore a cave
Snowshoe/ski/snowboard
Ride atv’s UTV
Zip line
Biking
Plan a sunset picnic
Go bowling
Visit your climbing gym
Play video or board games
Get cozy by a fire
Go to a movie
Take in the sights
Go stargazing or Aurora peeping
Tour a cave
Glacier trek
climb/Ice climb.
This is not an exhaustive list of things you can do to make your engagement photo session an adventure. Here are some more ideas on activities you can do during your session.
4. Dress Accordingly
What you wear matters. Consider weather, time of year, safety, comfort and most importantly something you feel confident in.
Some things to ask yourself as you start planning your outfits:
Do you want to wear a dress or suit and wander around the woods, walk barefoot on the beach, or maybe sport your favorite puffy on a mountaintop? How does that factor into the location and time of year for your photoshoot?
What time of year is your favorite and is that when you want to do your engagement photos?
Do you have a deadline for printing and mailing your save the dates?
Do you want photos in a different season than your wedding or elopement?
Multiple Outfits
Most of the time you can opt for multiple outfits during your session. You can use your second outfit as a way to showcase your personalities, wear something fancy, go casual wear or just another option because one outfit is too hard to pick (for you indecisive folks like myself!)
Whatever you decide I always recommend wearing your least favorite outfit first so you have some time to warm up to the camera, then pop on your fave outfit after you feel a little more comfortable.
Need some help styling your engagement outfits check out this what to wear style guide.
5. Consider The Weather
Every season has a different impact to the story. It can add to the overall mood of the images. Really consider when you want your story to be told. Try to imagine how it will look and feel. Obviously the weather is unpredictable, but there are some things we can do to aim for the best possible weather like researching when the best weather is for a specific location if you’re planning to travel to your session location. Or bringing along the correct gear to keep you both safe and comfortable in the outdoors regardless of the weather.
Dressing appropriately for the expected weather conditions and activities you might be doing is critical to being safe in the outdoors and having the best images. If you and your partner are uncomfortable or miserable the entire time it will absolutely reflect in your images and you will look back on that whole experience and just remember how awful the whole thing was.
Hot weather
How heat tolerant are you and your partner? Do you thrive in dry heat or absolutely melt in the summer? Take this into consideration when you’re choosing the time of year and location you want your engagement session to take place.
Rain
We cannot control the weather and if you’re having your engagement session anytime of the year besides winter, or maybe dry season, then you run the risk of it raining during your session. Worry not though, the right amount of planning and prep that you and your photographer put into your rainy day plan can make it a much more comfortable and even fun experience.
With the rain comes the MOOD and drama of some really epic images. Just make sure you bring the essentials and make a plan B in case things become unbearable or dangerous.
Rainy Day Session Essentials:
Clear or cute umbrella
Waterproof blanket
Dry change of clothes
Waterproof makeup (if you’re a makeup wearer)
Wear your hair in a way that looks good wet or can be quickly put up
Rain poncho
Contact lenses if you’re a glasses wearer (helps with glasses fogging up)
Snow
Winter engagement sessions can be so beautiful with all the snow on the trees and feeling like you’re in a real life snow globe! If you and your partner love winter recreation this can be a great way to have unique and fun engagement photos.
Just like with rainy days, snow days require some preparation and extra gear to keep you both safe and comfortable.
Snow Day Session Essentials:
Layers
Hand and body warmers
Heated jacket or vest
Gloves and hat
Blankets
Traction
Warm drink in a thermos
Sunglasses if its sunny
Here is a whole article on how to stay warm during your outdoor session or elopement.
6. Plan It Around Sunset Or Sunrise
Want those scroll stopping, blow-your-mind gorgeous images that you see all over Pinterest and Instagram? Then you want to plan your session during the best possible lighting of the day.
There are two types of incredible light that happen around sunrise and sunset:
Golden hour
About 2 hours after sunrise or 2 hours leading into sunset. The closer to sunrise or sunset you are the stronger and more directional the golden light is. This is that gooey, warm, romantic light you often see that feels like a warm filter was placed over the image.
Blue hour
About 10-30 mins after sunset or before sunrise. It gets its name from the vibrant blue sky. This is where you can get some really moody and dramatic images with lanterns, car headlights, candles, bonfires, sparklers, headlamps, twinkle lights, street lights, etc.
Optional Night
Do you and your partner love star gazing, chasing Northern Lights or watching fireworks? Then consider waiting until full darkness and do some images with stars, the milky way, Aurora, or fireworks (if they are allowed in your location).
How Does the Time of Day Effect Crowds?
Sunrise is typically a very quiet time of the day, most people are still sleeping or having their morning breakfast. So imagine getting up before the sun, meeting your photographer at a popular location and having it all to yourselves for hours before the first visitors arrive. If avoiding crowds and having a place all alone is important to you then sunrise might be worth the sleep sacrifice!
Sunset can be a little quieter when compared to peak hours of the day typically 11am-4pm. Depending on where you are, other visitors will likely be leaving around dinner time and some popular locations can actually be quite secluded as well.
Cloudy
Even if it's cloudy I still recommend keeping your engagement session around sunrise or sunset because the quality and direction of the light is still better than the middle of the day.
All this to say, if you’re hiring a professional photographer for your engagement photos then they will have the expertise to photograph in any lighting environment and make y’all look good, it can just be a lot more impactful to have your images in high quality natural lighting if possible.
7. Bring Your Pet(s) Along
Some outdoor spaces are more inviting to our furry family members than others for a variety of reasons like delicate alpine environments or risks of animal attacks, etc. So knowing you’re bringing them along can really help
you narrow down your location options. Places like National Parks typically don’t allow them on trails either, so keep that in mind if you have a National Park in mind.
8. Make A Day Out Of It
Plan a date night after or maybe even take the weekend to celebrate! You're freaking ENGAGED!!! Why the heck not go all in and celebrate that!? So, clear your schedule–plan a dinner, picnic, weekend getaway, or even a fun activity for during or after your photo session!
9. Have Fun!
Be goofy and have fun. Remember it comes down to what you both want to do. If you want to keep it simple, just the two of you in nature—do that! Or, if you want to hop on a plane to the mountains, that’s cool too! There’s no wrong way to do this.
Allow yourselves to be comfortable, stress-free and enjoying the moment!
WE ARE HERE TO HELP YOU PLAN YOUR ENGAGEMENT SESSION!
Stuck and have no idea where to go or what to do? Just ask, we would love to assist you in the whole planning process! Want an epic mountain engagement photo session in Montana or dying to fly out to Iceland for some insane waterfall vibes—Check out our travel schedule, it’s not as far fetched as you may think and we are here to help!
