We don’t include engagement sessions in our intimate or simple collections, but every time we photograph one, a part of us thinks about adding them back. Did you have an engagement session with your wedding collection and if so, are you glad you did, (and why?). If you didn’t have one, do you wish you had or are you indifferent to them?
The majority of our weddings are not in Buffalo with the majority of our clients live 3+ hours away from Buffalo. For this reason, we don’t include an engagement session in our base collections. We often travel for, or have clients travel to us for engagement sessions and when they do, we are always happy we get to work with them before their day. There are so many positive benefits to an engagement session, one of our favorite reasons for them is that the clients get portraits of themselves together that aren’t in the context of their wedding day. These images are often some of their favorites as it’s just them, as they truly are, in their real life clothes, doing real life things. Engagement sessions also help couples get comfortable in front of the camera before their wedding, (which is especially helpful for those of you that insist you are camera shy). Lastly, it gives us another opportunity to get to know our couples beyond our phone calls & e-mails, in person, and a chance for them to get to know us, (and how we work), before working so intimately together on their wedding day.
Sometimes we think about including the option for our couples to choose between an engagement session or an anniversary session to be used within the year or two after their date. So much changes those first two years of marriage that we think it could be a nice way to be sure our clients are documenting their life as it continues.
All of that being said, we get asked a lot by our couples if they think they should have one and we answer the same way every time. We don’t find engagement sessions 100% necessary -we’ve photographed over 130 weddings with a LOT of camera shy couples and we’re confident enough to get our clients to a comfortable place within a few minutes of arriving to their wedding day even if they didn’t have an engagement session. However, if they would enjoy more natural & intimate images of them, (and just them, without all of their wedding guests around), in a more every day type of setting, and/or they think it would help relax them before their wedding day, then we always encourage our couples to consider one.
We want to hear from you-did you have an engagement session when you got married, and if so, are you glad you did, (and why?). If you didn’t have one, do you wish you had or are you indifferent to it still? We’d love to hear your thoughts!
