Should We Have An Engagement Shoot?

A lot of wedding photographers (including me!) offer some form of engagement shoot, couples shoot or pre wedding shoot to their clients. For the purpose of this blog, we will consider them to all mean the same thing – a photo shoot with your wedding photographer before the big day. Most of those are offered for free, as part of the wedding package, which poses a few questions: 

• Why is it free? Surely, it’s creating more work for the photographer. 

• Should we take up the offer and have the shoot?  

Why are engagement shoots free when we book a wedding?

This is a matter of personal and business choice for your wedding photographer. The reasons for offering up a couple’s session normally outweigh the costs.  

The main reason I love couple’s pre wedding shoots is to give everyone a chance to get to know each other. Weddings can be stressful days, which aren’t helped when a random person turns up with a camera or two to follow you round all day! An hour or so having a wander around somewhere pretty can make a lot of difference to those feelings and nerves when it comes to the big day. You can get a sense of how your wedding photographer likes to work; how they’ll handle the day. Having an engagement shoot gives everyone a chance to relax and become friends, away from the pressures of family and friends on the morning of your wedding. 

You’ll also have an opportunity to see how you as a couple look in their photographs, in their editing style. You often get a trial run at how they deliver their galleries, getting a chance to have awesome photographs of you as a couple in your “normal” clothes to print and put on the wall. 

If either (or both) of you are like me and instinctively hide from any camera within a 2-mile radius, an hour or so with a professional can really help to calm the nerves and break down those barriers. You are never being photographed the whole time, most of it is spent talking and simply getting to know each other. Its always helpful during couple portraits on the wedding day to know a couple of stories or even just a phrase that will get a reaction out of the couple. These are learnt during your pre wedding session.  

For those couples out there with children, how often do you have photographs of just you as a couple? In our house, photos of the kids are everywhere! There are also a fair few of my wife, and maybe 3 of me. I’m hiding behind a camera in at least 1 of them! Having an engagement shoot gives you a chance to be a couple again, and a good hour or so away from the children! That doesn’t mean that you must leave them at home though! I have no problems with people turning a pre wedding shoot into a family session if they want to, I just want to get to know you! 

Should we take up the offer and have an engagement shoot?  

This is a matter of personal choice, and a lot will depend on what time you have available. If you can make the time to meet your wedding photographer and have a chance to have a pre wedding shoot, then hopefully the reasons listed above show why it’s a good idea – particularly if its everyone’s favourite price - free!  

So get in touch with your wedding photographer and get yourselves booked in to capture even more of your love story!  

Check out these Blog Posts to help pick your engagement photoshoot locations!