Do You Need Engagement Pictures with Your Wedding Photographer?

Do you need to have engagement pictures with your wedding photographer? This is an important question that all couples need to ask themselves when planning their wedding. All wedding photographers offer engagement sessions. Some charge an additional fee. Some include it in their standard service. I choose to include an engagement session in my standard service. Here are a few reasons why:

• An engagement session gives me an opportunity to learn about my clients and get to know them. This is invaluable on the wedding day. Knowing things that are important to them. Knowing how they interact with each other. All very important details when documenting a wedding day.
• It gets my clients comfortable in front of my camera. I stress this (a lot) but it is extremely important. If my bridal couples are going to look comfortable in their wedding pictures they have to be comfortable. Having a camera follow you around all day is daunting and can be intimidating…unless you are used to it. I always use the analogy that celebrities look so comfortable in front of the camera, even every day on the street, because they are used to it. My clients are my celebrities and I will prepare them to be such on their wedding day.
• My clients end up with, what is probably, their first professional photographs together. Most haven’t had their pictures taken together, at least not professionally and not done well. If my clients know how great they can look in pictures it gives them the confidence the BE more confident in pictures.
• My clients will have a piece of artwork to hang on their wall that features themselves as the subjects.
• It gives us a chance to scout the best places for wedding pictures in the city that they will be having their wedding.
• It’s added value. Quite simply, including an engagement session adds value for my clients.

Including an engagement session in my standard, or minimum, wedding photography service has many benefits. A few I just listed. But in the end, the biggest benefit is that my clients will end up with the best wedding pictures that I am capable of producing. An engagement session is important in that. And THAT is the point of everything that we do.