How To Prepare For Your Engagement Session (or Just Relax!)

Posted January 28, 2015 at 10:00 am in how to prepare for your engagement session

It’s engagement season (or so all the wedding websites out there like to tell me), so let’s talk a little bit about how to prepare for your engagement session. First, check out this article I saw on Offbeat Bride on Monday, The “Less-Than-Photogenic” Couples’ Guide to Engagement Pictures. I see these sorts of articles every once in awhile, but I’ve actually never met a couple that thought of themselves as particularly photogenic, which is why I’m choosing to link this one. It really speaks to my philosophy when I’m taking your photos!

The first thing I always tell my clients when they ask about their engagement sessions is that “Comfort is king.” Or queen. Or whatever premium word you want to use. One of the first engagement shoots I ever did was in February and the girl showed up in 6 inch heels and a strapless cocktail dress. I know I’m in the Bay Area, but as we walked the 2 mile loop they’d planned, she was freezing and miserable. The photos turned out, thankfully, but probably because we were joking about how cold she was!

In other words, if you want to dress up, work with me to choose a location that matches the weather and your attire! I find most of my clients prefer to show up in more casual clothes – this lets us move around and explore rather than getting bogged down. While I’m not necessarily recommending pajamas or sweats, generally speaking, if you’re comfortable, your photos will look more natural and everyone will laugh at a lot more!

In terms of color, would it be more ideal if you didn’t wear clashing colors and patterns? Yeah, probably, but let’s face it – sometimes, you and your better half can be like oil and water style wise, and that’s okay! I’m pretty happy if people just show up without sunglasses-sunburn, so I’ll take what you give me. 🙂

I also turn to my clients first when looking for location. Maybe your significant other proposed while you were out hiking one day, and you want to recreate the walk. Maybe you met in a certain district in San Francisco and want to incorporate that city style into your session. A lot of my clients are usually puzzled by choosing a location, but the sad truth is, I can’t necessarily choose for you because there are so many places special to you that I just don’t know exist! If you have a few ideas in your head, other peoples’ engagement photos that you’ve seen, send them my way and I’ll try to find something similar.

Speaking of location, I consistently schedule my engagement sessions in the evenings, usually within 3-5 hours of sunset. If you want to get up with sunrise, I’m game, but unsurprisingly, most of my clients prefer the evening option. I also like to point out that if you manage to snag a wedding-free weekend session with me, almost any place we settle on will be busier on weekends. If you’ve chosen a well-known landmark, too, the place is going to be swamped with tourists on the weekends! As such, I urge my clients to choose a weekday that both of them can take off from work early and they usually manage to make it work. Be prepared to choose a weekday and plan ahead for that lovely Bay Area rush hour traffic too. The best light of the day is sadly at the same time as the most frustrating traffic!

Last but not least, let’s just have fun together. I know that you’ve probably never done this before; it’s not like I’m expecting you to be a modeling genius. Think of the engagement session as practice for your wedding. While I will pose you, to be honest, I’m really looking for those moments when you can’t take the pose seriously anymore. I’ll be telling you what to do whenever you look uncertain, so really, just relax. There’s no reason to be nervous! You guys are going to look great together! I promise! 😀 You do your thing, I’ll do mine and between the three of us, we’ll make great photos.