Congratulations, you’re engaged! You have now officially entered the world of wedding planning. This is an exciting time but, it can also be overwhelming when you begin considering all your options. Suddenly, you need to think about things like whether or not you should elope versus having a micro wedding. You have to give your attention to makeup trials and cake testings and let’s not forget that you are on a mission to find your perfect wedding dress. And then, to top it all off, you need to find the perfect wedding photographer – someone who you have excellent rapport with and who you can trust to capture beautiful images of one of the most important days of your life. In your quest to find the perfect photographer, you may have encountered photographer’s offering engagement sessions – whether it’s complimentary as a part of the collection you choose or as an a la carte investment, you have no doubt encountered this and perhaps you may be asking yourself if there is any good reason for having an engagement photo shoot? I am of the opinion that there is great value in investing in an engagement session and I would like to share with you my reasons for why I think you should consider having professional engagement pictures:
1.Being engaged is a milestone worth celebrating on its own
You have just said, “Yes!” to the person who you believe is your soulmate and the pair of you are about to be thrust into the sometimes-overwhelming world that is wedding planning. Depending on when you set your wedding date and how far in advance you begin assembling your team of wedding specialists who will help you pull off your perfect wedding day, you may find that this period of being engaged just flies by in a blur and that
you haven’t really taken the time to just be and enjoy this moment being happily engaged. This is a beautiful time of your life. It is a season that is filled with excitement, anticipation and optimism for the future, and you ought to take the time to absorb this moment – even if only for the hour or two that is your engagement session. Take a minute to bask in this moment and celebrate this season of being engaged as a part of your love story.
2. Having an engagement session builds confidence and excitement for your wedding photos
When looking for a wedding photographer, chances are you are you will be sending out a lot of inquiries and speaking to many photographers in order to find the photographer who is the best fit for you. Throughout this process, you will likely be looking through a lot of websites, social media accounts and many other platforms where you can view prospective wedding photographer’s portfolios. From the get-go, you may not know exactly what kind of look and feel you want your wedding pictures to have so, you may spend a lot of time looking at various wedding photographer’s images until you find the photographer’s who artistic style and body of work most resonates with you.
Once you have found the wedding photographer who is the best fit for you, you may still be wondering what your wedding pictures will look like so, having an engagement session will go a long way in building trust in the work that you are wanting your wedding photographer to do on your behalf. It’s a great way for you to learn being comfortable and confident in front of your photographer’s camera and it will make you even more excited for your upcoming wedding day.
3. View having an engagement photo shoot as a fun, bonding activity
I have already mentioned how being engaged is a milestone worth celebrating on its own and while celebrating this milestone, it is a given that you want to have fun and enjoy this time of being engaged because it really is so fleeting – especially when you view it in the light that your marriage will last a lot longer then your engagement period. So, why not have a god time in this brief season of your life and view your engagement session as a fun and enjoyable way for you and your future spouse to connect. Wedding planning has the potential to be overwhelming and stressful – especially in light of the current global health crisis – so, it may be really beneficial to you and your future spouse to take a moment to forget all about alternate wedding dates, making venue arrangements and whether or not you can you’re your full guest list in attendance on your wedding day and just take the time to focus on each other and your love. Talk with your photographer about how you can turn your engagement session into a fun, beautiful and magical moment that captures the story of your love as a whole, as opposed to the feeling that your engagement session is just an obligatory right of passage or something that is done for traditions sake.
4. You will have beautiful pictures that you can use for wedding purposes
Once you have your engagement session done, you don’t have to let those images just live in a file on your hard drive There are so many fun and creative ways that you can use your engagement photos in and throughout your finer wedding details. From having a display of your engagement pictures on the table where your guest book is to customising the guest book itself to include your engagement pictures, this is just one way that you can use your engagement pictures to make your wedding day a little more unique and distinct. You can also incorporate your favourite engagement pictures as a part of your wedding favours or use them as thank you cards addressed to your guests. And going one step further, you could even use your engagement pictures as holiday cards you send your season greetings with – especially if your engagement session falls in that time of year where we celebrate Thanksgiving and Christmas. You could increase the exposure of your engagement pictures by using them in a slide show that plays to “your song” as a part of your rehearsal dinner or as its own segment in your reception. You could also go the route of having the slide show play in the background during your cocktail hour while your guests mingle. The possibilities are endless when it comes to how you can use your engagement pictures – the only limit is your imagination. Being engaged is such an amazing season of your life! Savour it and make it last forever in timelessly beautiful photos!
