What is the meaning of and why should you have a Pre Wedding / Engagement / Couples photoshoot?
“Where to start with Emma! Just amazing! We first worked with Emma for our pre wedding shoot, both of us feeling very anxious of being in front of the camera. Emma's experience shows as we did not have to worry at all. She knows exactly what she wants from the shoot so is more then happy to guide you and get you to have as much fun with it. I would massively encourage anyone to do a pre shoot before your wedding. I'll be honest we nearly didn't, but doing it made me realise to not leave it till the big day unless your’e super confident on knowing what to do. On the wedding day we both felt more relaxed posing ourselves for the shots and it was all due to the pre wed shoot preparing us.”
Lauren + Dan
What?
A couples photoshoot before the wedding is described much like an engagement shoot or a pre wedding session. It’s a photo shoot separate to your wedding day and has many benefits to having one. It celebrates your engagement to each other and also prepares you for your wedding day photos.
It’s a photo shoot that happens in advance of your wedding to add that extra story to your wedding journey.
Why?
For most of us, having a professional photo shoot is very rare and we’re only faced with a professional photographer and camera for life events. A lot of us can find it quite scary even though in day to day life were constantly taking photos of each other and appearing in selfies. But when you are faced with a professional camera pointing at you, for some reason your body can sometimes naturally freeze and a bit of yourself can be lost.
Now this is not ideal to experience on your wedding day. Therefore most photographers offer a couples photo shoot service to eliminate those nerves, stiff postures and camera shy-ness. So I highly advise that you take the opportunity to have one!
It’s perfect to give you the confidence and practise needed before the big day. Understanding how a professional photo shoot actually works, what’s involved, how much guidance do you get? You can start to relax and let in your photographer. The more you know each other the better experience you are going to have. So open up to them, let them get to know you.
Being a portrait photographer (photographer of people) is all about capturing the essence, soul and personality of that person. Getting across in a photo exactly who they are. It can be quite a challenge when this opportunity hasn’t happened during the course of your wedding journey - If you havn’t given the time, information or chance for the photographer to know you more than most other suppliers would. Just letting your photographer understand a bit about what you do in life, how you both live together, what you do on the weekends, your hobbies and interests can make a huge difference to your experience of being photographed. Of course this can be known from emails and phone calls and not just the couples photo shoot. But the photographer has to work hard on understanding your limits and goals sometimes, they want to learn this from you and doing this on your wedding day is far from ideal! So open up and let them in, even just a tiny bit!
A couples photo shoot is a great opportunity for you and your photographer to get to know each other so there are no surprises on your big day. They can see you together as a couple in a normal, relaxed situation, with no one else around to distract. They will be working out what’s best for you both and your personalities, how far to go with ideas and where your limits are. It also gives you the chance to get to know their shooting style whilst practicing and experimenting in front of the camera (and not your guests!) As a result, I promise that your wedding day photographs will be even more amazing, because you will be entirely comfortable with what’s happening on your special day.
Bonus
You can use the photos to create personalised ‘ save the date’ cards and wedding décor, or perhaps have a large portrait from the photo shoot which your guests can sign instead of a book?
A Photo shoot with Emma
What happens before your photo shoot?
First we have to decide on where your photo shoot is going to take place. You have options; in a studio or out on location, in your home, somewhere unique and special to both. It could be anywhere! But make sure it’s connect to you both.
Studio
If you choose to have your photo shoot in the studio, we will plan what kind of theme, backdrop colours, vibe you would like before we plan anything else. From there we will discuss the styling with any additional décor or props and then your outfits.
Location
You can literally have this photo shoot anywhere! It’s time to get creative, think outside the box. How can you incorporate some of your favourite things, activities and interests into this shoot? This is the time to really go all in. We aren’t being too formal here so go wild and choose something truly unique to express your relationship!
Choose a location that is special and meaningful to the both of you – perhaps where you met for your first date, the location of your first weekend away, where the proposal took place or somewhere totally random and fun! Pick a theme and we can create a set up based on that.
What to wear
This type of photo shoot is a celebration so I like to get you to think of it as going out on a date together. Dress up with something new (great excuse to go shopping!) or choose your favourite outfit.
As a fashion photographer I love to incorporate beautiful attire with location to bring all elements together to create amazing photographs. I recommend wearing complimentary colours if you don’t want to clash and no items with large logos as this may date, were not on a hugo boss ad!
Wear something that makes you feel comfortable and confident! Patterns, bold colours, and accessories photograph really well. Get creative with your wardrobe!
I personally provide a style guide that I’ve created for all my couples, to help you understand and choose your outfits to get the best out of your photos.
Props
I want your photo shoot to be fun and as normal as possible, therefore activities are a fabulous way to get you both laughing and enjoying the experience, resulting in photos which are natural, interesting and catch the essence of your relationship. I’m more than happy for you to incorporate props in the photo shoot to make it more personal to you.
I’m not talking blankets to sit on, I mean something to really set the scene!
Example of props; car, disco balls, candy floss, dinner and drinks, making pizza and sharing it together, champagne to pop!
Hot tip
Have your make up trial or trial out your make up artist the same day of your photo shoot so you can check it back in the photos and see how your make up looks. Giving you the confidence to know you are going to look fab on the day or if you need to go back to your stylist for any changes.
What happens during the photo shoot?
We will meet most likely for the first time at our pre discussed location. I always give some tips, advise and a heads up on how to expect the session to go and how I’m going to direct you – right from the start. Then we will dive right into it and have so much fun!
Standard engagement or pre wedding photo shoots can last between one to two hours as we chat and take our time to get a good variation and shake out all those nerves. The first 10 mins can always feel a little awkward if it isn’t something you are used to, but I can promise you, you’ll warm up to it and by the end you’ll be doing it all by yourself with no guidance required from me.
And that’s the result we want from a couples photoshoot before your wedding, so that on the wedding day we’ll be hanging out like mates and you’ll want your photos taken all day rather than hide away from the camera!
Discover the latest photoshoot ideas, tip, updates and more
Join the monthly newsletter from Emma
+ receive a free, helpful photoshoot guide when you join.