Amidst the craziness of planning your big day from deciding the venue, to what type of flowers, to outfits, who has the time for a whole photo shoot? Many couples when they reach out to us, ask if they can forego engagement shoots for time-related reasons, to cut costs, or other various reasons. However, engagement sessions or e-sessions as some like to call it, are more necessary than you may realize!
Here are 6 reasons why you shouldn’t skip that engagement session:
1. GET USED TO THE CAMERA
Unless you’re a professional model, it’s really to easy to become nervous in front of the camera (if you are, than great, you’ll be just fine). Most of us are not used to being photographed. Odds are, along with all the other butterflies, stress and nerves you’re feeling on the big-day, that camera will likely add to the nerves and you’ll be left blank on how to pose. Engagement sessions are wonderful ice-breakers for you with the camera. You’ll get used to being photographed, posing and get a preview of what your pictures will come out as before the wedding! When you get the final product (most likely before the wedding), you’ll know on what areas you want to improve in terms of posture or facial expressions.
2. YOU’LL GET TO KNOW YOUR PHOTOGRAPHER
2. YOU’LL GET TO KNOW YOUR PHOTOGRAPHERAnother important reason why you shouldn’t forego that engagement shoot is that you’ll get to know and meet (if you haven’t already) your wedding photographer. You’re going to be with this person all day on the day of your wedding , so you want to feel comfortable around them. You’ll talk, exchange stories, and some laughs— you’ll connect. Your photographer will also be able to better understand you and your partner’s personality and how you interact with each other. This really adds to the icing on the cake in helping photographers guide you and your partner to better pose and helps them know how to better capture you both beautifully. These small details make a HUGE difference.
3. PRE-WEDDING MATERIAL
Not only are engagement sessions great ice-breakers for you with your photographer and the camera, they’re also a great way to have some pre-wedding material. You can use your engagement shoot pictures for save-the-date cards, printed frames for grandparents and parents or for wedding invitations— the options are unlimited. This is why you should book your engagement session months before your wedding, like 6 months or more! So that you have those pictures ready to use at your disposal.
4. RECONNECT AND CELEBRATE YOUR LOVE
The engagement period is an exciting time, you and your partner are both excitedly awaiting the new adventures you both will take on. However, while you and your partner are busy planning your wedding and life, it becomes easy to not enjoy this time period and perhaps not even find time for each other. Engagement sessions are an incredible way to take the time out for each other and reconnect. Whilst you gaze into each other’s eyes and hold each other— those ambers of love will set ablaze once again.
5. COMBINE IT WITH A HAIR AND MAKEUP TRAIL
If you’ve hired an HMUA (Hair & Makeup artist), you’ll most likely be doing a trail run with them of your hair and makeup. So, here’s a great idea, why not combine the day of your engagement shoot and your HMUA trail. This way you can take advantage of your hair and makeup done by a professional for some gorgeous pictures and get an idea of how it’ll all look in the pictures. Many makeup artists will actually suggest this so that you look just right on the day of your engagement shoot as well (not that you need makeup to look beautiful of course, you’re beautiful with or without it).
6. INCLUDED IN THE PACKAGE
If you’re on the fence about the engagement session because you think that skipping it will save you some money, well, don’t worry! Many photographers include engagement sessions in their wedding packages.
For example, at MKEshoots, we include engagement sessions in our packages. And if the packages don’t fit your needs, we’re more than happy to customize our packages to mirror exactly what you’re looking for.
Our personal experience with our engagement session was really wonderful. We weren’t able to have our engagement sessions months before as we were in a long-distance relationship and our photographer was flying in from another state. However! We had our engagement session a week before our wedding. Boy, was it difficult to take that time out a week before! But we’re so glad we did. We hadn’t seen each other in a few months (we used to live in two different states) and it was just a really great opportunity to reconnect. You’d think as photographers we would know exactly what we’re doing. Well, we did to some extent but, we were both used to being behind the camera, not in front of it. Overall, our engagement session was a really positive experience and it really helped us prep for the big day!
Caught your interest? Contact us and let’s get the ball rolling for your upcoming wedding!