Why you need to book an engagement session if you haven't already!
Your other half popped the question ( or maybe you did) and now the whirlwind adventure starts with planning your wedding. The Pinterest boards are multiplying, you've bought a years supply of wedding magazines and bookmarked 50 wedding blogs, not to mention the number of vendors and suppliers you need to start looking at for your perfect wedding day! Before you start getting caught up in the craziness of the planning and booking, take a moment to cherish this incredibly special time in your lives.... you just said YES!! You're about to start the most amazing adventure of your lives and if you want this memory to last forever, there is no better way to do that than to document it with photographs! Couples session, Pre-wedding session, engagement photo shoot, love story documentation, adventure session... whatever you want to call it, it's the perfect way to capture this moment in your lives..... but
"we're awkward"
"we hate having our photos taken"
"I don't want to pose for photos"
"engagement photos are cheesy"
I hear you say! These are the usual things we hear from couples when we initially meet them, and I feel ya boo, having your photograph taken can be quite nerve wrecking! People worry about how they look in photos and having their photographs taken because most of the time they are going on the experience of those dreaded tagged images on Facebook ( we've all been there). When you initially think of engagement photos the first thing that probably pops into your head are those severely awkward, incredibly staged photos like in the Masterminds movie ( although if you want to do a session recreating this iconic 80s look, hit us up!)
In reality, photography has moved on a lot from those days, and as photographers who pride ourselves in capturing natural, authentic, real moments; we promise your engagement shoot will be painless, not an ounce of cheddar in sight and a lot of fun!
So why should you have engagement photos done?
Here are some of the reasons we think you should let go of those inhibitions and book a session!
Nerves & Apprehensions
Having your photograph taken isn't a naturally occurring everyday thing ( unless you're a professional model), so obviously you'll have some worries about it because you don't know what to expect! And guess what, we have nerves too; "what if they don't laugh at our jokes?", "what if they think we're totally bonkers?"(actually its totally cool if you think that)! We all have this inbuilt fear of the unknown and that's what it comes down to, you have no idea what to expect and are probably thinking things like " but what if we have to do cheesy poses?" and " what if we're really awkward?". We're here to tell you that we 100% won't have you doing those cheesy prom poses, or looking at each other around a tree trunk! What we will do is have FUN and keep things very fluid and relaxed! You can rest assured that we totally put ourselves out there and are not afraid to make fools of ourselves in front of you, and show you that we're just as awkward ourselves! When you recognise your fears and accept them, you allow yourself to move past them, so embrace the experience, be prepared to giggle a lot and allow yourself to have fun ( obviously our banter filled ways will have you there in no time!)
“As soon as we met with Christin our nerves vanished, instantly she made us feel so relaxed and that we were there to have some fun! ”
You'll Get to Know Your Photographer
That leads us very nicely to the next section! You'll have already met us once during our initial meeting so you'll have a rough idea that we're the coolest people you ever met! No, seriously we're very chill and not serious people, but we didn't have cameras with us! On your wedding day your photographer is the person that you will spend all day with, so surely you want to make sure it's someone that you feel comfortable with and can trust? Having a pre-wedding session gives you that experience and opportunity! You get to see how we work and it allows us to build a genuine connection and relationship with you. Most guests at weddings ask us " so how do you know the couple?" This is totally down to the fact that we make you our BFFs from the moment you enquire, we invest in the two of you and your story so to everyone else we could have been lifelong friends. Building this relationship with you before your wedding is fundamental to how we work and will make a huge difference in how your wedding photos are, and you want awesome wedding photos right? In turn, it also lets us get to know you, from the moment we meet we are watching the way you interact, looking at how you look at each other, watching for those little moments, quirks and personality that make the two of you special. We don't want to produce carbon copy Pinterest images, we want to document your story and the beauty of your relationship!
You'll Get to See Professional Photos of Yourselves Before the Wedding
We did the session, you had a blast and are excited, we're really excited too so we usually send you a sneak peek in the few days following your session. This is obviously incredibly nerve-wracking ( for us too!) but once you see your engagement images and realise that A. the photos look awesome and B. the whole experience was nowhere near as scary as you first thought, you'll have more confidence in yourselves and in us. When it comes to saying "I do", you'll not be worrying about the photographs, you'll have freed yourself from those initial nerves to allow yourself to focus on what matters: marrying your best friend! Did we mention you get photos? yup, you get a whole gallery of images that you can pretty much do anything with! Couples have used them for announcements and save the dates, good old social media, printed out as gifts for friends and family, had them dotted around on their wedding day, you could even wallpaper your front room with them!
“I would recommend a pre wedding shoot to anyone. It gives you the chance to meet your photographer, to know exactly what you want and what your photographer’s style is like. Christin caught those moments you only think are between you and your loved one. Our photos are beautiful and will be treasured forever”
It Gives You a Chance to Reconnect
How much of your time has been taken up since saying Yes with insane rushing around, wedding planning, booking vendors and seeing friends and family to congratulate you? You might start feeling like you haven't got a moment alone together. Taking a little bit of time out for just the two of you is so very good for the soul. During engagement sessions, its such a beautiful thing to witness when couples relax, sink into each other, remember why they said yes and take advantage of the moment of just being together. I said engagement sessions are fun... I lied... well not really they are fun but they always have elements of calm, romance and pure love filled moments. We go at your pace and whatever is comfortable with you and if there's an especially loved-up moment happening, I will totally give you your space to enjoy it!
Rome wasn't built in a day
and taking your photos doesn't happen in 5 minutes. We like to manage expectations and we always advise that if you want really natural awesome images of the two of you, you need to invest the time into this portion of your wedding coverage. Having the pre-wedding session has its benefit in two ways! Firstly you experience whats involved in taking couple portraits and that it takes a while to get into the swing of things and go through moments to get awesome images. An engagement session usually lasts around 2 hours, and most people are surprised how quickly the time goes ( we all having a shed load of fun remember!) We know that wedding days can be hectic and timelines can be really tight and we don't want to keep you from your guests for huge amounts of time. For the couples that have booked a pre-wedding session, they already know what to expect for this part and are excited about the mini adventure we'll get to have. As they are already comfortable with the way we work their couple portraits don't take anywhere near as long as couples who haven't had a pre-wedding session and so they have more time available to enjoy the celebrations with their friends and family! We want you to enjoy your wedding and love your photos, investing in the engagement session will help you do just that!
“I would definitely recommend an engagement shoot as it gives you the chance to discover your photographers style, how you are in front of the camera, and what to expect on the big day! We cannot wait for Christin to be a part of our wedding day, capturing those special moments you wouldn’t think could be caught on camera. We our overwhelmed by how our photos turned out, Christin is as a natural. ”
We hope this has given you a bit more insight into why engagement sessions exist and how they really can benefit your wedding photography experience and images!
Big thanks to our incredible couples who took the time to tell us about their experience and wrote such honest and wonderful words about their sessions!
Engagement sessions can be booked individually or at a discounted rate with your wedding photography package, follow the links below to see more or get in touch to book your session!
