I get a ton of questions from brides and grooms every day, so I thought it might be helpful to start answering some of them in a series of blog posts. First up, Engagement Sessions…
Do we really need an engagement session?
Um, YES! Wedding coverage with Krista Photography always includes an engagement session. It is SO helpful on the wedding day for us to have worked together before, that I practically make them mandatory :) It’s such a great opportunity for us to get to know each other better – for you to see how I work and for me to see what you guys are like in front of the camera. It’s really awkward for most people to be photographed, I know that. So, it’s great to get all of the awkwardness out of the way before the wedding. The first 15 minutes, it’s weird and you don’t quite know what to do. And then we keep going, we laugh through the strangeness, and we find that you become much more able to be yourselves and enjoy it. And then on the wedding day, you’re like a couple of pros who don’t have to worry about it at all!
One bride wrote me after their engagement shoot to say:
“We had *so* much fun shooting with you … and on our drive back today we were talking about how it actually kind of felt like a (v. non-traditional) date! We’ve been kind of bogged down with work and wedding planning stuff … so it was a really refreshing and much-welcomed break. I can’t wait for the wedding!!”
Another great benefit to the engagement sessions is that you get to see what YOU will look like in my photos. So many people come in after seeing all these gorgeous people on my blog and say things like “oh, well we’re not that photogenic” or “hopefully you’ll be able to get some nice photos of us” and all sorts of crazy things like that! What they don’t realize, what you don’t realize, is that every couple on my blog is a real couple. I don’t do a lot of work with models, I work with real people. Real people have flaws. Real people feel weird with someone photographing their every move, sticking a camera in their face, and following them all over the place – in public no less! It’s not about having someone gorgeous to photograph, it’s about finding out what makes each couple beautiful and bringing that out! So, the engagement session really seems to encourage most brides. When the photos come out, they see how great they look in them, and they can finally really picture what their wedding photos will look like. And I think that makes brides even that much more excited for the wedding!
It also is a great opportunity for feedback. Most women are insecure or uncomfortable with something about themselves – be it their nose, chin, neck, arms, that one freckle, whatever! I only keep the photos of you that I think are awesome, and that I think you look beautiful in – but not every bride agrees with me on when they look beautiful. (In the same way I don’t think my friends are always right about what photos on facebook are “great’ of me ;) It’s helpful for me to know what you like and what you don’t like so I can make adjustments at the wedding!
I had a bride call me once after the engagement session, very upset because while she thought the photos were beautiful, she didn’t like how she looked in them. I happened to catch her in profile quite a bit (this happens when you’re looking at your fiance a lot, I must warn you), and she was self-conscious about her chin. The LAST thing I want is a bride calling me crying about her wedding photos! So, it was great to get the feedback after the engagement session. At the wedding I was able to focus on catching her from different angles, and helped her to pose in ways that were more flattering and accentuated what she liked over what she didn’t like. And she was way happier with the wedding photos than she would have been if we’d never done an engagement session!
Plus, I think it’s great for you to have some really awesome photos of the two of you in your natural environment. You’ll get some fabulous natural photos on your wedding day, of course, but that’s a fancy version of the two of you. This is the “real” thing! It’s nice to be able to show your engagement photos to your kids one day and say – this is what we were like before we were married, this is what our life was like. I love that!
So, all that to say, YES, you really do need an engagement session! They’re super fun, and helpful, so what have you got to lose?!