Your engagement shoot is a great way to capture your love story, everyday life, and the things you love to do together. Angela + Chuck’s engagement session is such a great example : we planned ahead and it made the shoot seamless, stress free, personal to their love story and SO FUN!! And today I’m sharing the behind the scenes look of how I prep my clients for their engagement session!

After reading this post, you will feel confident in preparing for your engagement shoot and making it personal to you! Taking the time to prepare will help you relax on the day of the shoot and allow your personalities to naturally shine through each photo.

Grooming

Making sure you are ready for your shoot by having all of your usual grooming habits taken care of is huge! If you normally have your nails done, make sure to consider the colors and tones that will be in your outfits and setting.

If you normally get your hair done, don’t do it the day before. Allowing a week or two before will ensure it is exactly how you like it! We all know how highlights and coloring takes time to settle into the look we are really going for!

Getting your ring cleaned is a great idea! Pictures always accentuate the details and some of my favorite photos are close ups of hands being held.

Outfits

I highly recommend shopping or planning your outfits a week or two ahead of time. For my couples, I encourage two separate looks at the photoshoot. The first look can be more casual. I usually advise a shirt and pants combo, unless the dress is longer and comfortable to move around like the white dress Angela wore for her first outfit. The second outfit is usually a more dressed up look. Definitely keep comfort in mind and allow for movement in your clothing. You don’t want to feel insecure about something feeling too short or tight. The main goal with this photoshoot is to keep things as personal and authentic to you, so if dressing up is not your thing, skip it! Or if you are like Angela and you love fun dresses – you can totally wear a dress for both outfits! There is no hard fast rule!

Makeup

Get your wedding trial makeup done on the day of your engagement shoot! This is such a savvy way to learn how it will look in photographs. This is a great point of reference for planning your final look for your wedding. Lastly, it is a great way to feel totally pampered for your engagement shoot!

Make Your Engagement Shoot Personal

There are many ways to add a personal touch to your engagement shoot. I love helping my couples plan out an experience so that their sessions feels more like a date night than a photo shoot! Below are a few of my favorites for personalizing your session!

• Incorporate things from your favorite date night
• Pick a location that connects with you as a couple and would be a place you’d like go explore together normally
• Pets – bring along your furry friends! I’m a big dog lover and pets are always welcome!
• Picnic: bring your favorite snacks and beverages ( check out the special bottle Chuck + Angela brought to their session!)
• Music: have a playlist or album that you both love? Bring it! I always play music during the shoot to keep things light and fun! For Chuck and Angela’s session, I learned that they love early 2000’s pop and boy bands. So of course Destiny’s Child and Backstreet Boys were definitely on the playlist!
• “Love Story” Questionnaire! Before the shoot, I send my couples a Love Story questionnaire asking details about how they met, first impressions, memories etc! I ask that each partner fills it out separately and that they don’t share their answers! On the day of the session I’ll ask them to share some of their answers with each other! This is such a special way to create space for real and authentic emotion between your couple!

Angela + Chuck brought a special bottle of champagne to share from their favorite winery!

What is something authentic about you and your partner that would be SO fun to incorporate into your engagement shoot? Tell us in the comments!