You’re engaged! The question has been well and truly popped (so to speak) and has been positively reciprocated, so what’s next? Lots of wedding planning, obviously, such as booking the venue, buying a dress, arranging the catering etc, but how about booking in an engagement photography session while you’re at it? Why, I hear you ask? Without further ado, here are five thoroughly good reasons why you should definitely book a pre-wedding photography session*:
1. Get to know your photographer
When you hire a wedding photographer, you’ll be working alongside each other all day on your wedding day. All photographers have different styles and ways of working – some are quiet, polite and work in a relaxed and efficient manner (me, for example…!), and some….well, some photographers I’ve met and worked with are a little more…vocal, shall we say. You might prefer one way of working over the other, so the best way to find out what your photographer is really like is to book them for an engagement session. You wouldn’t want to fall out with him or her on your wedding day now, would you?
2. Feel comfortable in front of the camera
As I mentioned in my blog post 5 Tips to Look Great in Photographs, very few of us feel completely comfortable having a camera pointed at us. However, it’s your photographer’s job to make sure you feel relaxed when having your photo taken on your wedding day, and spending an hour or so in their company creating fantastic photographs certainly helps. When it finally comes around you’ll be completely used to being caught on camera, and you won’t hunch your shoulders up around your ears every time a lens is pointed your way!
3. You’ll receive fantastic photographs
An engagement session is a great opportunity to be creative – not just for your photographer, but for you as a couple as well. It should be a relaxed, fun affair – you can throw on some fancy glad rags, bring some props or a favourite pet along with you, and spend an hour or two in one of your favourite locations larking about with your significant other. At the end of the session you’ll receive some amazing photographs – doesn’t get much better than that.
4. Your photos are useful!
Once you receive your photos, I’m sure you’ll want to share them with your family and friends on social media, to show them all how utterly gorgeous you and your significant other are! How about using the photos for Save the Date cards? Or a signing book perhaps? How about a coffee table book to show off when you have friends over for dinner?
5. Your engagement is important
There are very few events in life that can be considered truly historic. I’d say there are four – your birth, your engagement, your wedding day and having children (if you so desire). Shouldn’t your engagement be something to be celebrated? Just as you’d fondly look back on wedding photos in years to come, shouldn’t engagement photographs be treated with the same reverence? I for one say they should.
* All wedding photography collections come a pre-wedding session, so drop me a line for more info!
