It’s video time! I know engagement (or pre-wedding) sessions / shoots aren’t for everyone, but here I explain what they are and why you really need one before your big day!
Also, if you scroll down you’ll see I’ve added some of my favourite photos from recent engagement sessions. For those of you who can’t be bothered to watch the video in its entirety (shame on you), I’ve kindly transcribed it for you below. I know, I’m good to you aren’t I? 😉
Hi folks! I’m Dan from Dan Biggins Photography and today I’m going to talk to you about why you need to have an engagement photography session.
So, first of all you’re probably asking yourself, “What is an engagement photography session?” Well, it’s basically where we meet up in a location of your choice and we take photos of you to celebrate your engagement. That is it really! That’s how simple it is. It can be any location of your choice:- it could be in a park; it could be on the beach; it could be up a tree! It could be down the aisle in Tesco’s. I mean whatever you want we could take photos, and it’s basically a chance to celebrate you as a couple, celebrate your impending marriage and you could share the photos with family and friends on Facebook, Instagram and MySpace if you want to.
(Is that still a thing – MySpace?)
So there are five reasons I think why you should have an engagement photography session before your wedding day, and the first one is:
1. It helps you relax in front of the camera
So I’ll be honest with you – having your photograph taken…it’s a bit weird. I mean, it is a bit weird basically. That’s why I tend to sort of work behind the camera instead of this side, because this feels a bit weird at the moment, me talking to you into a lens. It’s just a bit weird. So I fully appreciate how strange it is having your photo taken. Most people don’t like having their photo taken which makes my job a little bit more challenging! Occasionally I meet people who are just gorgeous and they model for a living and they quite like having their photograph taken because that’s their job, but 99% of the time people just don’t like it. I don’t like it, so it’s my job to make you look amazing which hopefully I do.
So after the session pretty much every single couple has said to me how much they enjoyed it, and that it’s made them look forward to the wedding even more. So by the time I turn up at the wedding they’re not thinking, “Who’s that weirdo following me around with a camera?!” They know exactly what to expect and you’ll know exactly what to expect, meaning you can relax and enjoy your day even more with your loved ones. Result!
Onto point two, which is kind of tied into point one, and that is:
2. It helps us get to know each other a little bit better
So obviously your wedding day will be…let’s say it’s from getting ready in the morning…let’s say 10, 11 o’clock. Say your ceremony’s at 1, it’ll go through to sort of 10-11 o’clock. So realistically I’m going to be with you for about 12 hours…I’m going to be following you around for 12 hours. There’s a lovely thought, isn’t it…
So, I’m gonna be there all day, so really it’s good that we get to know each other as much as possible. You get to see how I work as well, so you’ll see I’m pretty laid back. I don’t shout at people people generally…no, I don’t shout at people…generally…and yeah, so again, by the time I turn up at your wedding you’ll say, “Oh, it’s Dan, it’s that photo bloke innit!” and everyone’s happy and you can relax once again and enjoy your day.
Which brings us onto point 3, which is:
3. It helps you celebrate your engagement even more
So obviously when you get engaged you tell all your family and friends. Everyone’s really excited and then it’s kind of…gone, and then you start planning the wedding, and then people start asking you, “What size of rose would you like?”, and, “How many flavours do you want in the middle tier of your cake?” Stuff like that. So having a photo session just allows you to kind of milk a little bit more, and just keep the excitement going a little bit longer really. You can again like I say share photos with your family and friends, whack it up on Facebook and everyone can go, “God you’re so lovely you make me so jealous!”, and yeah, you can kind of extend the excitement of your engagement for as long as humanly possible. And why not?! It’s something that most of us do hopefully once in their life, so yeah, bloody well celebrate it I say!
Onto point four which is:
4. It helps build trust in me and the final product that you’ll receive
So obviously you’ll have a good idea about what my work is like from my website and my social media channels, but you won’t exactly know what to expect as far as you’re concerned. You know, what your photos will look like. So after you receive the engagement photos…again, every couple I’ve ever photographed has been absolutely thrilled with their engagement photos, and then it will give you a really good idea of what to expect after your wedding, which hopefully increases your trust in me, which allows us to relax even more on your wedding day, which means that we’re both happy campers basically!
And onto my fifth and final point, and that is:
5. Your engagement photos are useful
So what do I mean by that? I mean that, for example, you could use your engagement photos for Save the Date cards. I know I did an engagement session…it’s a couple of years ago now in Hyde Park, and the couple used one of the photos for their Save the Date cards which they sent out to family and friends, which was a really nice thing; and everyone receives the card and says, “What a lovely photo!”, and everyone’s happy basically.
Again, you can print those photos out and you can put them up in your living room. You could print a poster and whack it up on the side of a bus shelter. You do whatever you like basically but yeah, the bottom line is that your photos can be used for lots of lovely things.
So that kind of wraps that up really. I hope it’s been useful – I hope it answer some questions about engagement sessions, and I hope that if we should meet and I say, “Hey, let’s have an engagement session!”, don’t throw heavy objects at me please. Just sort of…if you don’t want one, just sort of go, “Yeah Dan, that’s lovely, thanks!” But hopefully it should be something that gets you excited for all the reasons I have just stated.
Okay, my name’s Dan and thank you for watching and listening, and please visit my website at www.danbiggins.com. And I hope to hear from you soon! Okay, take care, buh-bye.
