Engagement Session Guide
Locations
Choose locations that you love or are meaningful to the two of you! Think about whether you’d like to be indoors, outdoors or a mix of both. Bars, restaurants, museums, greenhouses, arcades, and your home make great indoor options. As for outdoor locations, we love national/state/local parks, gardens, arboretums, hiking trails, lakes, and waterfalls. Even just a walk around your neighborhood makes for an amazing photo shoot!
Plan
If you’d like to go to a couple of places, plan out which location you’d like to go to first. Do you want to walk around your neighborhood with your dog and then grab a bite to eat? Or would you rather stop at your favorite bar for a drink and then head to a park? Maybe you want to hike to waterfall with a picnic lunch. Whatever you’d like to do, let us know and we will help you plan! Most private locations will require prior notice, scheduling a time to visit, paying an entrance fee or purchasing a permit to do a photo session at the location.
Season
Pick a time of year that you are comfortable in! If you love the idea of a shimmering snow fall and are ok with being cold, plan a session for January or February! May to September are perfect for warm weather, greenery and stunning sunsets. If you want flowers in the spring or the foliage of the fall, plan your session for the beginning of the season. This way if we need to reschedule because of weather, we will still have time to catch the flowers or fall colors.
Time
The best time for an outdoor photo session is 1-3 hours before sunset. The light outside is very pretty at this time of the day and perfect for photos! If you are planning an indoor session, the best time of day varies depending on the location but usually the morning or afternoon light works best for most locations. Once you have a location and date picked, we are able to tell you what time will work the best for your session.
Weather
Obviously, we can’t control the weather but we do our best to work with it. When scheduling your engagement session, feel free to schedule a rain date too in case of bad weather. If you are coming from out of town and we only have one shot to do your engagement shoot, have an indoor location as a backup! If you aren’t worried about your hair and clothes getting wet and like the idea of dark and moody images, we can absolutely do your session in the rain!!
Activities
We love when couples incorporate their hobbies and favorite activities into their engagement sessions!! We have seen couples hike mountains, pop champagne, play games at an arcade, pack a picnic in the park, fly fish, eat at the restaurant where they had their first date, or even go to their favorite museum. Whatever you like to do, don’t be afraid to include it in your session! Even if it’s just to stroll through your favorite part of town.
Outfits
We recommend wearing one to two outfits. If you chose to wear two, try to pick a casual option and a formal option. Chose outfits that you would wear in real life!! Try to complement each others outfits without completely matching or wearing the exact same color. Make sure you try your outfits on together to see if they look good on you. Avoid huge patterns or logos, but other than that, just be yourselves and stay true to your style. Oh, and make sure everything is steamed and wrinkle free!
Accessories
Ditch the apple watch or hair tie around your wrist!! Instead, wear your favorite jewelry or (real) watch. We don’t recommend wearing hats for your session, but if hats are your thing, definitely bring one along and plan to wear it at the end of your session. We also recommend bringing along a favorite jacket if it gets cold at the end of your session.
Minimize
Try to minimize the amount of things you bring with you to the photo session. If you want to bring a second outfit, hat or jacket with you, leave them hung up in the car or make a plan to stop back at home to change. Don’t pack them in a bag to bring along with us. They will only get wrinkled and in the way. Also, empty your pockets before the session starts. We can carry keys, wallets and cellphones in our camera bags for you!!
Pets
We LOVE animals. ALL animals. Please include your pets in your session! We love to meet them!! Our recommendation is to have a family member or friend bring your dog to the location of the session for 10-15 minutes and then take them back home. This is the easiest way to include them in your images without stressing them out. If you want to include your cat or other pet, planning an in-home session usually works best!
Hair + Makeup
If you like to have your nails done, get your nails done! We love to take photos of your hands and the engagement ring! Get spray tans done well in advance or don’t do it all all. Also, if you want to have your hair and makeup professionally done for the engagement session, we recommend going for a trial run ahead of time to make sure you love it!
Relax
The more you can be yourselves and relax during the session, the more you will love the photos! We don’t expect you to know what to do in front of the camera, we will guide you and help you with that part. What we need from you is to enjoy each other! Make each other laugh, be affectionate, stay in the moment and have fun!! Last but not least, if you are super nervous, do something before the shoot that grounds you.. meditate, workout, go for a walk, take a long shower or have a drink (or two!!)