5 Tips For Planning Your Engagement Session - TréCreative Tips&Tricks

Stephen and I absolutely love engagement sessions! It allows us to spend more time with our amazing couples, we get to see how they interact and ease their nerves about having photos taken. For most of our couples, this istheir very first time having professional photos taken together. It’s expected to have nerves and we love getting the chance to walk them through our process, which in turn makes their wedding day experience feel so smooth! Below are five quick tips to help any couple planning an engagement session!

1. Schedule Professional Hair&Make-Up - Professional hair and makeup is something many of our brides have been opting to schedule in before photos. This removes the stress of you having to do your own hair and makeup and leaves you in great hands! Having this done can give you an extra boost of confidence and it always looks amazing to photograph! If you're getting your makeup done professionally for the first time, it may look like too much makeup has been applied. Don't worry, this is normal! A professional makeup artist will know how much to apply and sometimes a little extra will look great on camera!
2. Get Fancy - Don't be afraid to dress up for you engagement session. Long flowy dresses and skirts photograph really well because they bring extra movement and dimension to your photos. Short dresses also look very beautiful on camera too. Both of these types of outfits look extra flattering and feminine on women. There's nothing wrong with going more casual, but your engagement photos are a once in a lifetime opportunity, so we suggest leaving jeans at home! For the gentleman, tailored pants and shirts are a great choice. If your groom doesn't have a tailored suit, now is the perfect time to get one and can often be less expensive than expected. Solid gray or navy colors compliment women's patterns and pastels best.
3. Show Your Groom Some Engagement Sessions You Love - We totally get it, most guys aren't always super jazzed about having romantic photos taken. However, we can assure you it's completely worth it! We encourage all our brides to take fifteen minutes and explain to your groom why these photos are important to you. Show him two or three of our engagement sessions so he knows what to expect. By the end of your engagement photos, your groom will be telling you how that "wasn't that bad", he may even say it was fun!
4. It's Okay To Be Nervous - We tell all our couples this when we arrive at engagement sessions, it's totally okay to be nervous and feel awkward at first. The first 20 minutes of a session will most likely feel a bit funny and awkward. Here's where knowing and loving your photographer's work comes in handy! A good photographer can take any odd situations and make you feel completely comfortable by the time the session is over. We tell our couples that they'll feel like pros after the session and it's so true! This makes the wedding day even more stress-free because you'll know how we work and you will be confident that we're going to capture amazing photos of you two. It takes trust to know your photographer is going to deliver what you've seen on their website and blog and the engagement session is the main place we build this trust.
5. You can't mess this up!! - Engagement photos are meant to be practice for your wedding day! Not all photographers feel that engagement photos are necessary and practical. However, for Stephen and I, we believe engagement sessions are very important in the wedding planning process. It's another step in building trust with your photographer and knowing what to expect on the wedding day! You're going to do great, you seriously can't mess this up. We'll take care of you and tell you everything you need to do to look your best. Have fun with your session, and before you know it, it'll be over! Afterwards, since you're already all fancy and dressed up, we encourage all our couples to head to a dinner and make a fun date out of it!

We hope this installment of TréCreative Tips&Tricks has been helpful. To see more of TréCreative wedding inspirations click the Tips&Tricks button on the ride sidebar. Also, if you have any questions you'd like us to answer in a future Tips&Tricks post, don't hesitate to reach out via email. Thanks friends!

-S&C