Engagements are so engaging. Romance is in the air and the anticipation of a lifetime together comes to a crescendo in the rush during the weeks leading up to your wedding, causing you to wonder: Is an engagement shoot necessary? After all, your wedding pictures share the beginning of your life, right?

Shooting an engagement session (E-session) is important for several reasons. First, this time allows you to get comfortable in front of the camera with your photographer, figuring out how you work best together before the wedding. Next, you can showcase your personalities in a more casual setting, while creating some fun captures for wall portraits, your wedding sign-in book, sign-in board, and Thank-you cards (shot early enough, we can also provide the images for your Save the Date cards and invitations). Images also add another dimension to your wedding album, chronicling the story from engagement to your wedding day.

Best of all, you can remember this special time forever away from the throngs of loved ones and friends. This is your time together. Because we understand the importance of E-session, we include it in any wedding package.

Great engagement shoot ideas:

• At the place, he proposed: After all, what better way to capture an engagement than the place it all started!
• At your favorite restaurant: Meaningful memories happen with food, ambiance, and your special song playing in the background.
• Doing your favorite activity: You both enjoy playing checkers. What better way to capture your personality than in the heat of gameplay, the agony of defeat, or the comedy of contemplating your next move?
• Where you first met each other: Whether your first meeting was a discussion at the library or fumbling for the door at the local coffee shop, going back to your beginnings is a marvelous memory.
• Images with your pet: What better way to capture your new family than by including a beloved shared pet in your session?
• Your favorite skyline: Your city is beautiful at any time of the year, and the skyline shares where you live now, a beautiful location that might change with time.
• A downtown urban session: Fun and funky, pictures in alleyways or in otherwise undiscovered locations of your area make for a more intimate view of the city.
• An amusement park: Nothing says fun like the Tilt-A-Whirl to go with your whirlwind romance.
• A romantic beach: In the morning, evening or any time of day, the sea meets an endless sky for a feeling of forever.
• Vintage-styled, with old furniture and funky clothes: Bring out your nostalgic or avant-garde side with some dramatic, edgy modern shots coupled with retro stylings.
• At your favorite, cute coffee shop: Quirky and cozy, local mom-and-pop shops are a great way to take a quick break to refuel and to catch some local, architectural shots with you in the process.
• Seasonal: Catch the nuances of the seasons, including everything from a winter wonderland, to leaves of fall, to flowers in spring, to the lush, green summers in nearby beautiful fields and forests.