Five Common Engagement Questions Answered - TréCreative Tips&Tricks

With many 2015 wedding photography and videography inquiries coming in we get asked a lot about engagement sessions and what to expect. We figured what better way to answer everyone's questions than with another one of "Tips&Tricks" blog posts. First things first, Stephen and I love love LOVE engagement sessions. By the end of each session, our goal is that our couples leave feeling more in love and even more excited for their wedding day. We make sure our couples feel relaxed and most importantly just have a ton of fun during these sessions!

I'm nervous, how can I best prepare?

Some of our couples express how leading up to their session they tend to feel either nervous, giddy with excitement, or a mixture of both. This is totally expected and we know first hand that sometimes nerves can get the best of us. There's no need to be nervous though! Our job as professional wedding photographers is to not only take amazing pictures of you two, it's to make you feel at ease and completely comfortable in front of the camera. We've spent long hours learning how to work with couples in a way that is relaxing and super simple. We treat engagement shoots like a double date of sorts, just Stephen and I (and our cameras) plus you two! We'll make sure you feel comfy in front of the camera by doing fun things together that you enjoy, and the camera wont be pointed in your face the whole time, don't worry. By the time the wedding day roles around, you'll feel like a professional model, working that camera like nobody's business.

To best prepare, there's not much you need to do. As far as locations go, we'll collaborate with you over email to find a spot that fits you two perfectly. Make sure your ring is clean as we love to get a macro ring shot during the engagement session some time. If you'd like to do your hair/makeup/nails feel free, totally up to you. You can use the engagement as a makeup or hair trial run for the wedding, or just an excuse to feel extra glam'd up :)

What time should we schedule our engagement session for?

We get asked all the time when is the best time to take photos. Many photographers refer to the best lighting of the day as "Golden Hour" or "Magic Hour". It's the time of day right after sun rises or right before it sets when shadows are long and everything turns a dreamy golden hue. To be exact, we like to shoot around 1-2 hours after sunrise or 1-2 hours prior to sunset. The lighting during this time is beautiful, and it's way more flattering than trying to take pictures with the bright sun straight overhead at noon. Most of our couples opt for the later evening option, although, we have done a few gorgeous early morning sessions here and there. To be safe, we always like to plan to end our sessions half hour before the sun is actually scheduled to set. This gives us time so we're not chasing light and we can take our time hanging out and not rushing the session.

What do I wear? How many outfits should I bring? Should we bring props?

Bringing multiple outfits or props is totally up to you! For most of our engagement photography sessions we usually encourage our couples to bring 1-2 outfit changes. This allows you to get a variety of looks, maybe one casual and one more "dressed up", or maybe one with pants and the other with a favorite dress or skirt. Again, totally up to you two for interpretation, wear something that fits you! Usually, we'll start with one outfit and then find a spot to change to another if we go to another location. When in a pinch, the backseat of our Honda Element makes a great changing room with it's roomy space and tinted windows :D Really, when it comes down to it, wear something that you feel good in. There's no colors or patterns that look "bad" on camera so wear whatever you like!

As far as props go, if the props fit your wedding theme or personalities, then we say go for it! We know that Pinterest can be a great source of inspiration, but sometimes it may give you too many ideas for fun things to bring along. Some couples opt to bring a prop that is sentimental or something that represents something they enjoy doing together. For instance, John and Mallory (seen below) love riding her parents tandem bicycle around Chico, so for them it was very fitting to incorporate that into their shoot. Props can sometimes be a fun way to "break the ice" with having your photos taken, so if you're like Ricky Bobby and don't know what to do with your hands, a prop can help give you an "action" to do while we snap a couple fun photos :)

Can we bring our dog?!?

This might sound silly but more than half of our couples last year brought or wanted their dogs as a part of their engagement session. We love this idea and we LOVE dogs. Stephen jokes regularly that we're going to start a side dog photography business. He wants to call it TréNines hahaha! But seriously, Stephen and I LOVE dogs, and would have one ourselves if we didn't travel every weekend for weddings. We get our dog fix every time our couples introduce us to their furry family member and we love capturing the relationships between these pups and their owners. Sometimes logistically, bringing your Furbaby to the engagement shoot may take some extra planning, but we'd love to make it work! We recommend a family member or friend bring the doggy either at the very beginning of the session or towards the last 30 minutes. That way we can get those lovely dog shots quickly and then keep focused on still getting the individual shots of you two as well :)

What if we're awkward in front of the camera? We never take good photos together!

Perfect, that's what we're here for! Seriously, couples say this to us ALL the time and we love it because we know that the photos we are about to take of them are going to be the BEST photos they've EVER seen of themselves :D If you need reassurance that we'll make you look "not awkward", click any of the photos on this post to see the engagement photos from that specific couple's engagement session (excluding the one directly above which is coming soon).

Over the years we've become great "directors" during our shoots. We'll guide you in how to pose in a way that looks natural and candid, plus in ways that reflect your personality and love for one another. If you're a goofy fun couple, we'll make sure we get "goofy fun" photos (of course with some romantic classic engagement ones too). We like to get a good balance, so that everyone is happy and you have a huge variety to choose from in the end.

We can't stress enough how much we love these engagement sessions. We always have such a blast hanging out and getting to know our couples during these fun times. It's always exciting to adventure around new locations taking great shots of two people in love. Thank you for reading and sharing this week's TréCreative Tips&Tricks post, hope this info can benefit you or someone you know!

See previous TréCreative Tips&Tricks below: (we just started last week, this list will grow soon)

Planning the Perfect Wedding Day Schedule - TréCreative Tips&Tricks