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I'm an intimate wedding photographer for lovers and the occasional rebels. You can expect to see all the desert magic and adventure throughout the blog posts below. Whether you're looking for photo inspiration or wedding planning tips and tricks, I'm your girl!

Hey Babes, I'm Suzy!

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5 Tips to Get the Most out of Your Engagement Photos

5 Tips to Get the Most out of Your Engagement Photos

Engagement sessions are all about ditchin’ the wedding planning for a few hours and falling in love all over again. It’s isn’t just about capturing beautiful images, which will totally happen, but it’s also about remembering why you love your person the way you do and capturing that feeling. Here are a few tips on how to get the most out of your engagement session!

1. Create a Connection

I LOVE engagement sessions for so many reasons, but most of all I love connecting with my couples. Having coffee or chatting over the phone with your photographer is a perfect way to meet, chat about life, and see if you’d be a killer fit together; but spending time adventuring together on an engagement session connects you in a whole new way.

It’s totally normal to have expectations about what the session will be like, but the magic happens when you truly trust your photographer and let them take the lead. They know the good light, they know your best side, and they know the crazy things to say to get an honest reaction.
Trust them and your photos will shine.

2. Get Comfortable

If you’ve never been in front of the camera before, engagement photos are a great time to get comfortable before the big day. Every photographer approaches a shoot differently, but I usually begin by letting my couples know I have ZERO expectations for them to be models who are perfect at posing. What I actually want is the complete opposite of that. I want you to feel 1000% percent comfortable cuddling, laughing, and kissing as if I weren’t there. It isn’t about posing and looking at the camera to give a cheesy smile, it’s about slowing down, enjoying one another, and having that feeling captured in your photographs.

3. Make it Unique

It’s so easy to do a quick search on Pinterest for engagement photos, and you know what? They all look pretty similar. Make your engagement photos unique by creating an experience around your session. Choose an activity you and your fiancé love and invite your photographer to be a part of that experience. Do you love to hike on the weekends or love exploring local coffee shops? Have an obsession with mini golf, ice cream, the state fair, or even Christmas lights? The list is endless! Choosing an aspect of your already one-of-a-kind lives and incorporating it into your session is an incredible way to make it unique.

4. Get Dolled Up

Get dolled up, or honestly, don’t! The choice is yours! My biggest advice for couples preparing for an engagement session is to stay true to who you are. If you never wear makeup, please don’t go all out and wear tons of makeup because it won’t be authentic to you.

Choose outfits that you feel good in. There’s nothing worse than wearing a new top and finding out it doesn’t fit right and then feeling insecure the whole session. I often encourage couples to pick an outfit as if they are going out on date night, that’s a perfect place to start! If you’re fancy, be fancy girl.
If you’re a t-shirt and jeans kind of lady, rock that.

That being said, your engagement session is a great time for a trial run with your hair and makeup artist for the wedding day. Consider that a great option!

5. Enjoy It

Be present and enjoy the moments that make up your engagement session. 

Wedding planning can be crazy and stressful, but this is the perfect opportunity to reflect on your relationship and get all lovey-dovey about each other. If the photographer asks you to embrace one another, forget about how you look on camera and just be together. Those authentic emotions will translate to the camera and when you look back on your images, you’ll remember how you felt.

Your adventure may be a picnic in the mountains or sipping coffee at your favorite cafe. Or maybe it’s spending a Saturday morning at your home, cuddling and making waffles together. Whatever it looks like, I hope these tips have been helpful to you!

If you enjoyed this post, you may also like 5 Tips for Photographing a Stress-Free Wedding Day.

5 Tips for the Best Engagement Photos

If you’re planning what to do with your engagement photos after you get them back, your save the dates are the perfect place to show them off! Grab 20% off your entire order at Basic Invite with my code below. 🙂

5 Tips to Get the Most out of Your Engagement Photos

Engagement sessions are all about ditchin’ the wedding planning for a few hours and falling in love all over again. It’s isn’t just about capturing beautiful images, which will totally happen, but it’s also about remembering why you love your person the way you do and capturing that feeling. Here are a few tips on how to get the most out of your engagement session!

1. Create a Connection

I LOVE engagement sessions for so many reasons, but most of all I love connecting with my couples. Having coffee or chatting over the phone with your photographer is a perfect way to meet, chat about life, and see if you’d be a killer fit together; but spending time adventuring together on an engagement session connects you in a whole new way.

It’s totally normal to have expectations about what the session will be like, but the magic happens when you truly trust your photographer and let them take the lead. They know the good light, they know your best side, and they know the crazy things to say to get an honest reaction.
Trust them and your photos will shine.

2. Get Comfortable

If you’ve never been in front of the camera before, engagement photos are a great time to get comfortable before the big day. Every photographer approaches a shoot differently, but I usually begin by letting my couples know I have ZERO expectations for them to be models who are perfect at posing. What I actually want is the complete opposite of that. I want you to feel 1000% percent comfortable cuddling, laughing, and kissing as if I weren’t there. It isn’t about posing and looking at the camera to give a cheesy smile, it’s about slowing down, enjoying one another, and having that feeling captured in your photographs.

3. Make it Unique

It’s so easy to do a quick search on Pinterest for engagement photos, and you know what? They all look pretty similar. Make your engagement photos unique by creating an experience around your session. Choose an activity you and your fiancé love and invite your photographer to be a part of that experience. Do you love to hike on the weekends or love exploring local coffee shops? Have an obsession with mini golf, ice cream, the state fair, or even Christmas lights? The list is endless! Choosing an aspect of your already one-of-a-kind lives and incorporating it into your session is an incredible way to make it unique.

4. Get Dolled Up

Get dolled up, or honestly, don’t! The choice is yours! My biggest advice for couples preparing for an engagement session is to stay true to who you are. If you never wear makeup, please don’t go all out and wear tons of makeup because it won’t be authentic to you.

Choose outfits that you feel good in. There’s nothing worse than wearing a new top and finding out it doesn’t fit right and then feeling insecure the whole session. I often encourage couples to pick an outfit as if they are going out on date night, that’s a perfect place to start! If you’re fancy, be fancy girl.
If you’re a t-shirt and jeans kind of lady, rock that.

That being said, your engagement session is a great time for a trial run with your hair and makeup artist for the wedding day. Consider that a great option!

5. Enjoy It

Be present and enjoy the moments that make up your engagement session. 

Wedding planning can be crazy and stressful, but this is the perfect opportunity to reflect on your relationship and get all lovey-dovey about each other. If the photographer asks you to embrace one another, forget about how you look on camera and just be together. Those authentic emotions will translate to the camera and when you look back on your images, you’ll remember how you felt.

Your adventure may be a picnic in the mountains or sipping coffee at your favorite cafe. Or maybe it’s spending a Saturday morning at your home, cuddling and making waffles together. Whatever it looks like, I hope these tips have been helpful to you!

If you enjoyed this post, you may also like 5 Tips for Photographing a Stress-Free Wedding Day.

5 Tips for the Best Engagement Photos

If you’re planning what to do with your engagement photos after you get them back, your save the dates are the perfect place to show them off! Grab 20% off your entire order at Basic Invite with my code below. 🙂

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I'm an intimate wedding photographer for lovers and the occasional rebels. You can expect to see all the desert magic and adventure throughout the blog posts below. Whether you're looking for photo inspiration or wedding planning tips and tricks, I'm your girl!

Hey Babes, I'm Suzy!

Browse by Category:

weddings

engagements

elopements

travel

resources

fave vendors