Reasons To Book An Engagement Session
For this week’s post I would explain a few reasons to book an engagement session. If you’re here, I can assume that your wedding photography is high on your list of importance for your wedding. If that’s true (and hopefully it is), I want to help make sure you get the most out of your experience. Wedding photography can be a large part of your budget, an engagement session can help you add value to your overall wedding package.
#1 – Comfort
Getting to know how a photographer works will help you know what to expect out of your wedding photography. I think it’s important to the experience to have the same photographer handle both the engagement session and wedding day. This will help you get a feel for how the photography will go the day of your wedding. The more photos you take, the more you will get to know your photographer. On your wedding day, you’ll be used to their personality and won’t even notice them moving around throughout the day. It builds a trust that you wouldn’t necessarily have if this was your first experience with them. This will give you one less thing to stress about the day of the wedding.
#2 – Knowledge
Not only will you know what to expect personality-wise, but you’ll also know what to expect technically. A portfolio can tell you a lot, but it’s often a display of the best work. What you don’t see are the in between photos. It’s nice to get a full experience of a session to get a grasp of the photographer’s style. Though it’s usually a lot less photographs, it can also give you an idea of how the photographer works on the back end. How long does it take to see your gallery or get to your ordering session? Do products take a long time to be delivered? Does the photographer communicate quickly? This will again make you more comfortable and not have to stress out about when to expect your wedding photos.
#3 – Building a Relationship
Any good photographer will tell you that the best photos come out of building a relationship. Not only does an engagement session help you get to know your photographer better, but they also use it as a way to get to know you. They can figure out what you want and how you act in front of the camera. Having this shared experience will also help conversation flow more easily and they will feel more like a trusted friend than someone you hired. Everything goes back to comfort, you’ll be more at ease and able to be direct and honest about what you want and like. This will also instantly make your photos better, too. You know how you can tell when someone’s heart isn’t in something? They’re still talented, but something is just missing, but when you have interest in something, you can see the care in their art.
#4 – Added Value and Touches
I think all these reasons add value, but there is more to be gained from engagement sessions. Save the dates are the first thing that comes to mind, but there are other personal touches you can use your engagement photos for. Some ideas could be personalized stamps or return address labels to put on envelopes, stickers to put on a wine bottle as a favor, an engagement session guest book (which is a great change from just a lined book), or any other creative ideas. Just one more thing to make your wedding details stand out.
There are so many reasons to book an engagement session. It also gives you something fun to do with your fiance while waiting for your wedding day to arrive. Sometimes your vision doesn’t always go the way you planned (I wanted a bunch of floating lanterns…kind of a fail), but it’s always a fun experience.
For more advice about wedding photography or other sessions, follow our blog or facebook page!
