It’s that time of year again! Millions of couples get engaged between Christmas and Valentine’s Day, which makes this one of the most popular times of year for engagement photos. We might have six more weeks of winter (and a freak snow forecast out of nowhere) but I’ve been daydreaming of sun and warmth and capturing gorgeous images of you and your love together. I love engagement sessions, and I’ve been thinking lately about why engagement sessions are so meaningful to me, and why I think they’re absolutely essential! I have so many thoughts about how truly special engagement sessions are and why you absolutely should have one, to the point that I could fill this blog post and then some! But in order to keep this short(er) I put all my extra thoughts and tips into a bonus PDF for you guys. This engagement session guide is full of ideas for making sure your engagement session is uniquely you and so much more than just another thing to check off of your wedding planning to-do list! Read to the bottom to find out how to get ahold of that goodness!

I wanted to share some personal reasons why I find engagement sessions, and also this incredible part of your relationship, so meaningful. There are lots of technical reasons why it’s a good idea to have an engagement session, but beyond using it as a test run or strengthening your relationship with your photographer, I wanted to share why I think it’s important to document this time in your lives together, and hopefully help you guys see why you should reconsider not having one.

Weddings are about your union and life going forward.
Engagement sessions are about your life and relationship now.

Your engagement is such a unique part of your relationship. When you get engaged, there’s a shift in the relationship dynamic; it symbolizes a commitment to look to the future with the person you’re with. Being engaged speaks to the deep love that you both share, and the desire you both have to spend the rest of your lives together. Beyond a ring and a new title, it’s a special time that’s full of excitement and it deserves its own special set of documented memories. Your engagement will be full of planning for your wedding and your future life together, but you will also want to stop and enjoy what a unique time this is. Whenever I see people ask for advice about being engaged, the advice I most often hear is to make sure that you take time to enjoy the moment of life that you’re in, and an engagement session is a great way to do that. Your wedding will be a celebration of your commitment to each other and your life going forward, and that is what your wedding images will represent. But your engagement session is about your current life, the relationship you share now, and the love that is growing between the two of you in this moment. You engagement images will be a time capsule of your budding love, your “honeymoon stage,” and the beginning of your life together.

If I’ve learned anything in my four years of marriage to Ted, it’s that relationships grow and evolve. Even in just these few years that have passed, I can say that our love has grown and changed and deepened in ways I wouldn’t have expected or known back then. It’s so special that we get to look back at our engagement photos and remember how giddy and in love we were. We pull out our photos from time to time and remember what that day was like; how we were exhausted because we had a sunrise session,  how I hated the shoes Ted chose to wear, and how incredibly happy we were to be taking that life step together. Being able to see and hold those memories and reminisce about them is something I truly cherish because I know that someday I won’t be able to remember that day or even that time in our lives.

Ted and I, Circa 2013. Weren’t we so cute!?

Engagement photos aren’t just for you.
They’re for all the generations that will come after you.

We are so lucky to live in an age where we have an incredible knowledge base instantly at our finger tips. But it’s easy to forget in this age of instant gratification that we also need to think about the things we’ll leave behind for the generations after us. It’s something I think about often because I never got to see photos of my parents at their wedding, or even while they were engaged or dating – they eloped and didn’t have a photographer to capture those moments. Growing up there were a few photos of them from when they were younger, but for the most part I didn’t get to see what that part of their life together was like. I sometimes think about what it will be like when Ted and I are middle aged, and our kids are dating and thinking about marrying the loves of their lives. It’s hard to picture life that far in advance, but I know that one day I want to be able to sit on the couch and flip through our engagement photos, sharing that part of our lives with our children and our grandchildren. Can you imagine what that will be like?

Your engagement photos are not just for you, they’re for the people that will come after you. They’re for your children and your grandchildren and many generations after that. These images will preserve this incredible time in your life so that one day someone can pull out a print and say “look at this photo of my grandparents in their 20s! Look how young and in love they were!” If you’ve had the privilege of seeing some of your parents and grandparents photos from that time in their lives, then you know how special that is. I believe everyone should have that opportunity. And not just on facebook or in digital form, but an actual real life print of a photo taken 20 or 50 years ago – but more on that another time. 😉

Professional photographers can capture
moments that you might not see.

By now you might be thinking “well, I have tons of selfies and cell phone snaps of me and my fiancé, so no worries, we’re golden, right?” Well… as much as I’m a fan of selfies, and as much as I believe the best camera is the one you have with you, I also know that a professional photographer can capture more than you can see. As professional photographers, we’ve practiced and honed our skills to not only be able to *see* beautiful and special moments, but also to be able to capture them in beautiful and special ways. Plus, taking photos of yourself is truly not easy. Unless you’re Kim K and you’ve mastered the art of the selfie, it’s okay to admit you might need a little help getting those swoon worthy, two people madly-deeply in love images. That’s what an engagement session is all about! We do all the work so that you can have gorgeous images of this incredible, unique time in your relationship, while you enjoy an hour or two of being in love with the person you’re going to spend the rest of your life with. This post is not about the value of a professional photographer, because if you’re here I hope you already know that. But it is about the value of creating art out of these banner moments of your life. These are the milestones of your relationship, the big ones and the little ones, and I think one day when you’ve been together for awhile, you’ll want to be able to look back and see that love and remember what a special part of your relationship it was.

As promised, fill out the form below to receive your free PDF – How to Make the Most of Your Engagement Session! This thing is full of tips for making your session memorable, as well as what to do with the images after you receive them! Sign up below!