Welcome to this 5 week blog series on the things I would re-do if I got married again.  It’s been 9 years since I got married and when I look back at my wedding day, there’s not much I would change.  Everything went as planned and it was a super fun and smooth day.  Although, now that I’m on the other end of the camera, there are a few things I would do different that would enhance our images.

If you missed previous posts in the series, check it out here:
5 Things I Would Re-do if I Got Married Again- First Look

Do An Engagement Session

When I got married we didn’t have our wedding photographer take engagement pictures of us.  Having her take them would have been nice for two reasons:

1. To get comfortable with our photographer
2. To have a variety of images for invitations, guestbooks and save the dates

As a photographer, I feel so strongly about the importance of engagement sessions.  I was talking with a colleague the other day about engagement sessions and her and I like to think of the engagement session as the second date in our client/photographer relationship.  Our first date was the initial consultation where we spent time getting to know each other.  The second date (engagement session) we are already acquainted with each other, so we can pick up where we left off.  We will be able to get to know each other even more during the engagement session.  This helps create trust between us and that trust helps create ease and comfortability when you’re in front of my camera on your wedding day.  When our third date (wedding day) comes, you will hopefully be more comfortable with me than our first date, which will help you to relax and that will translate through to the images.  After all, I will be with you the majority of the wedding day, so having a photographer you know and trust is always a plus, especially since I’ll be the person in the room documenting the bride slipping into her wedding dress!

Engagement sessions also help the guys to relax and get comfortable being in front of the camera.  From what I hear, most guys aren’t super excited to get pictures taken whether it’s the engagement session or the wedding.  Doing the engagement session helps the guys see that I strive to make this an easy, enjoyable and painless time.  So many times after a session I have heard from the guys “That wasn’t bad” or “Thanks for making that painless”.  So now that they experienced being in front of my camera for engagement pictures, they will not dread “picture time” on the wedding day because they already know what to expect.

The second reason I love engagement sessions is so you can have images to create some fun and unique things for your wedding!  Some of my favorites are guestbooks and save-the-dates.

I love this guest book!  It’s custom designed with lots of white space to give your guests room to sign something more personal than just their name.  When I got married, we just had a book with lines in it, nothing fancy or cute like this!  If I had this, I would totally display it in my home!

These save the dates are fun too!  A custom designed card using engagement images… your guests will love opening the envelop and seeing your faces!

Want to see some cute engagement sessions?  Check out these ones:
Josh & Megan at Papago Park
Anthony & April in Downtown Phoenix
Dallas & Emily in Downtown Tempe