Not only are our brides who just booked us ready to get save the dates out, but our Fall brides who were waiting for winter to pass are ALSO ready to have their engagement session now that Spring is just around the corner.  With that, there have been a lot of questions lately about how to prep for your engagement session.  Where should we shoot?  What should we wear?  And so many more!  To help out, I’ve made a video that, hopefully, helps address those questions and more.  So here are my tips on How to Prep for your Engagement Session!

To show a few examples:

When picking an engagement session location:

1) Pick somewhere that is personal to your love story!

Luke proposed to Jenna on the beach in Corpus Christi, so that is where we shot their engagement session.  

After shooting on their family ranch for a while, Brad and Karen headed to their future home together to wrap up their engagement session!  

Mason proposed to Kelsey on his grandparents’ ranch under this arch way.  

Ben and Malorie met at an ice cream shop.  While this wasn’t THE shop they met at, it resembled it pretty close.  

Nick asked Kacey on their first date to a friend’s wedding in Shiner, Texas.  We headed to that very same church where their first date was.  

2) Go somewhere y’all ACTUALLY spend time at or do something y’all like to do on date nights.

Kamal and Angelica both went to the University of Texas, so we shot there since that is where their love story started.  It was also important to them to get some Texas wildflowers in their photos, so we made sure to time their session according to when the bluebonnets would be in bloom!

Callie and Jason both love the Austin music scene and shopping for anything vintage, ESPECIALLY at local record stores.

Kori and Joel love to camp and usually head to McKinney Falls State Park when they do.  Actually, they had just been there a few days before our shoot!  

Andre and Edmarie go fishing at a pond in the same neighborhood as their first home together.  So, they went fishing for their engagement session!

After you have your session location picked out based on a personal connection to that location with your love story or it being a favorite date night spot or activity and we have a date marked on the calendar for your session, you need to decide what you want to wear.  We should have time for two outfits.  You can do a casual look and a fancier date night look.  This will give you options and different looks when you go to select your save the date card photo.

3) Wear something that you feel comfortable in and confident in.  

You don’t want to have to worry about your outfit too much: if your dress is pulled down, if your bra strap is showing, if your shoes are hard to walk in – if you’re worried about any of these, it will hurt you in the confidence department, which will show through in photos.  Knowing this, wear something that you LOVE and feel good wearing!

Shane and Kourtney shot on their family ranch and this is their casual outfit!  It was super cute and both seemed very comfortable in the clothes.

4) Add accessories to show personality and add interest to your photos. 

I feel like I’m cheating with this shot of Lacey and Cooper because it hits multiple things to do at your engagement session.  Not only are their accessories spot on showing personality, Cooper proposed while riding horses in Colorado and this is their family ranch, where they ride horses every chance they get!  This is an activity that they enjoy to do together at a place they usually go and they’re wearing fun accessories that show their personalities!

5) Wear complimenting colors without matching.

Wyatt and Stormy did this WONDERFULLY.  Not only do navy and maroon coordinate beautifully, but they took it a step further to incorporate their significant other’s outfit color into their own.  Wyatt’s collar is the deep navy in Stormy’s sweater and Stormy’s sweater has a maroon stripe that matches Wyatt’s shirt.  See what they did there?  Beautiful! 

6) Don’t wear something you expect to be “photoshopped” out.  

For example, if you have a tattoo you don’t want anyone to see (be it you got it during spring break your first year in college where you had a little too much fun or you don’t want certain family members finding out about it (my mom hid a tattoo from my grandmother for a while…)), wear clothes that COVER that tattoo.  If your clothing reveals the tattoo, I will assume you’re proud of it (as most people are about their tattoos) and will leave it in the images.

If your shirt has a stain or tear or logo that you don’t like on it, find another one that doesn’t require it to be photoshopped.  I am not always able to get those kinds of things out of photos (there is a LOT that goes into being able to heal something with photoshop and still have it look untouched) and that type of post processing is not included in the price of the session.

If you’ve never tried tanning lotion or a spray tan, don’t opt for it with your engagement session.  More often than not, spray tans can end up giving you an orange tone that you probably were not intending.  The same holds true for boudoir and bridal sessions (I have a separate tips and tricks post for your bridal session on my blog here).  If, however, you’re very comfortable with the process and get “the glow” frequently, go for it!

If you don’t love the way a certain dress hangs on you, don’t wear it.  If you’re thinking this should go without saying, I did too, but I had a bride show up in an outfit that we had to hide a certain aspect of and that limited the number of poses we could do (since we had to strategically hide that detail) and limited the number of images she got back.   If you don’t like something about the outfit you’re considering, find another one.  If you’re unsure, ask a friend or a sister who will be honest with you and point you in the right direction.  For me, my sister, Morgan, or my husband are both great opinions to go to for clothing since they know my style (and what’s IN style) better than anyone else I know.  So much so, that I’m confident I could give them each money to buy an outfit without me seeing it and I would LOVE it.  Morgan is the one who pulled my wedding dress to try on.  I wasn’t about it, but it was EXACTLY what I was going for!  So, if you’re unsure, try your outfit on for a trusted friend before the session (kind of like you would for your wedding dress).

If you and your fiance are pretty close in height, but he still wants to look taller than you, don’t wear heels.  Don’t get me wrong here: I LOVE my shoe shots and heels are a FABULOUS accessory for your shoot!  If your fiance, however, is uncomfortable with you appearing taller than him in your engagement photos, play it safe and wear flats.  He will appreciate it and feel much more comfortable during the engagement session.

Another tip on how to prep for your engagement session is to:

7) Get your hair and make-up done!

Not only is this a great time for a trail run for your wedding day hair and make-up, it will make you feel more confident, as you won’t have to worry about if you have enough hair spray, or if your eyes are the same application, or if your lips are the right shade.  Having a professional hair and make-up artist do this for you takes all that worry away.

Sarah looks FLAWLESS, as always!  She had a little help this afternoon with hair and make-up from Simply Mandy, the same fabulous lady who had her looking glamorous on her wedding day.  

8) Don’t arrive TOO overwhelmed from the day you just had.  

Carly took half a day off from work to go get pampered.  She had her hair and make-up done by Method of Make-up and arrived to the session ready to have fun.  If she had gone to work that day, she *could* have arrived stressed from work worries or Austin traffic.  

9) Be on time (or early).

This is such an important tip!  For engagement sessions, I use only natural light.  With this, once the sun goes down, we have to stop shooting because we are out of light.  I time all sessions around sunset.  If you arrive 15 minutes late because you were stuck in traffic, we cannot stay an extra 15 minutes to make up for that time lost because we will have lost our only light source.

Greg and Maddie actually got to start EARLY because we were able to eat lunch together that afternoon.  Since we finished lunch early, we started shooting earlier.

10) Bring fun props!

Cashea and Ford brought coffee mugs that said “Bride” and “Groom” with their wedding date!

Ashley and Jordan brought a sign that had their wedding date on it!  Maybe the perfect shot for their save the date cards?Laura and Ruben brought their dogs to their engagement session!  They are so much a part of their lives together, that the pups got to be included in the session.  Not only were they there, they also got to announce the engagement with some cute signage that are actually engagement session props.  Laura and Ruben also brought scrabble pieces, blankets, and a ton of other props that gave them actions to do with the props and, I think, allowed them to have even more fun the afternoon of their session.

A great idea if you’re going to bring your dogs with you to your session is to bring a friend or family member to hold on to them while we do some romantic portraits without the dogs.  Laura and Ruben (from above) did this and it worked PERFECTLY!  While bringing a friend per dog is a good idea,

11)  Don’t bring a crowd of people.

The only reason I would ever suggest to bring anyone to your engagement session is if that friend or family member is going to help out with the session in some way.  At Nick and Mary’s engagement session, we needed help moving an old pick-up, driving us to the Longhorn pasture, carrying props (such as this Love sign), and getting the attention of the buffalo.  With this, they had help!  We NEEDED help.  His parents and their daughters were on site to help with all these activities!  It didn’t detract from the session, however, as the “helpers” weren’t around for the pictures.  They showed up when needed, then left without too many comments or being a spectator.  They were WONDERFUL to have that afternoon!  I have found, however, that if the helpers watch the session too long, the couple gets uncomfortable being watched and that shows up in the photos.  If the helpers have too many ideas, as well, the couple can quit focusing on what I’m trying to get them to do, which I KNOW will work, to try ideas of the friends that may not work out so well.  This, after a certain point, can start to become a time theft of your session.

12) Eat before the session.

As a person who can get hangry (angry because you’re hungry), please make sure you eat before your session.  While I would encourage you to go on a date after the session (you’ll be dressed up and looking fancy), grab a snack before you leave for your session and make sure your fiance does the same thing.  It will give you the energy to get through the shoot and you’ll feel better!

Honestly, I just thought Brian and Megan‘s background in this shot PERFECTLY fits this tip!  HA!  More than that, I remember one of them commenting about a restaurant we were walking by and the other one saying something along the lines of “How can you even be thinking about food right now?!?”  This was the day after Christmas and, apparently, they had just eaten a HUGE lunch with the family.  

13) Get your nails done.  

Ashley got her nails done in a beautiful French tip manicure.  She knew I’d be taking shots of the ring on her hand.

Sarah also got the French tip manicure!  You will be able to see your nails in non-ring shots, as well!  

One of Kayln’s wedding colors was pink, so she showed that through her nail polish!

Of course, some of these tips and tricks on how to prep for your engagement session will have exceptions to the rule.  If you have any questions about your engagement session or have any other tidbits of advice for couples planning their engagement session, please feel free to leave it in the comments below!

Hope this helps,

Mylah Renae

Austin Wedding Photographer

www.Eureka-Photography.com