Engagement Photo Shoot – part 2

Let’s re-cap part 1. You’ve already chosen:

• Who  to photograph you – professional or not
• What to wear – something you are comfortable in and accents your best features
• Where to have the pictures taken – chosen by the photographer or yourself
• Why - for your save-the-date cards, to frame the photos at your wedding reception or for your home
• When to have the pictures taken

Now you are ready to ask: What happens at an engagement photo shoot?

 

I’ve already had mine done so I can speak from experience. Here are some of my details: We were engaged in April 2011 and had our engagement pictures taken in October 2011. Our wedding was planned for November 2013 so we did not have to rush. We chose October for our pictures because we both love the fall colours and our wedding colour is red, so we hoped to get some red, orange and yellow leaves in our photos. We wore dark jeans, black shoes and grey sweaters with white undershirts. My fiancé and I had a professional photographer who was local to the area we live in and he suggested we take our pictures by a waterfall. 

Bring with you:

• Lipstick and a small mirror (you will be kissing your sweetie a lot today, so you will need to re-apply). 
• Facial tissues to wipe away tears, stray eyeliner and/or to use for blowing your nose if the weather gets windy or your allergies act up.
• Blanket if you are having photos outdoors and may need to sit on the ground for some shots
• Props such as a scarf, a puppy (haha…), hats, sunglasses, umbrella etc. We brought a scarf since it was October and we got some good shots using it tying us both up in a bow, pulling it around his neck to lean in for a kiss, etc.

During the photo shoot:

• Smile for the camera. The photographer will often ask you to pose in a specific way while they jump around to different angles for the best shot. Also, they will sometimes suggest you just “relax” so they can get a few in-the-moment shots that are not pre-planned. Remember to smile! 
• Hold still. You will be asked to “hold that pose” many, many times! Often this will be while you are mid-kiss with your sweetie. Holding a kiss perfectly still while someone takes pictures of you is difficult. During my photo shoot holding the kiss was so odd that I would laugh out loud and need to compose myself before we started shooting again.
• Go with the flow. Your photographer may ask you to pose in ways that seem odd or silly to you. I suggest you go with the flow and give it a try. It is possible the pictures won’t turn out the best, but what if they turn out beautifully? If the person behind the camera has done this before, they may know a few tricks you don’t.
• Check out all areas. You may be in one particular spot (such as a waterfall), but there are many places to take photos. Move around and try out different areas. I was at a waterfall, and we have pictures in 6 different areas: on a small bridge, sitting by a stream, on a rock, in some tall grass, by the waterfall, on rocks by the waterfall, and on a bench.
• Have fun. The whole experience will be a bit silly and you may be stressed thinking you will have these pictures forever but remind yourself to breathe and ask the photographer for a minute or two break to get yourself together if you feel a bit strained.

After the photo shoot:

When the pictures are developed you will have the option to purchase them from the photographer. You can either purchase individual prints, a package of prints, or maybe purchase all the photos in digital form on a disk. 

I definitely suggest buying the digital copies of photos because professional photographers often charge a lot of money for prints. From personal experience I can tell you our photographer charges $22.00 for an 8x10 print. My fiancé and I instead purchased from him 80 professionally edited photos on a digital CD Rom disk for the computer and the disk cost us $100. We then used the disk to purchase prints at a local big box store who charged $2.00 per 8x10 print. –much better! I printed off one of each photo in a 4x6 size to put in an album and then printed larger sizes for family and my home.

Make sure to discuss the experience with your partner to see if you would like to book them for the wedding. Suggestion – wait until you receive the engagement pictures from them before you decide for sure. A picture tells a thousand words and some of those words describe if you want them to do your wedding photos or not.

Did you get engagement photos done? Did you use that photographer for your wedding photos – why or why not?

To Have and To Hold,

Elizabeth Honey