You do!
So you are planning an amazing wedding with lots of color, life, people and of course a fantastic photographer! As you start your planning process you realize everything costs more than a few pennies. With money on the mind, everyone is looking for ways to save a few bucks on different wedding related expenses. Just don’t cut the engagement session!
We highly recommend the engagement session for a number of reasons. The bottom line is this… we would rather you ask for a payment plan than completely ditch the engagement session. Here’s why:
Dress rehearsal – You’re planning a rehearsal for your wedding day with a dress fitting, cake sampling, actual rehearsal the night before the wedding. So, it makes sense to have a rehearsal with your photographer (us of course) – your engagement session is just that!
We take a few hours to talk and walk, have oodles of fun, candid shots and basically teach you how to relax in front of the camera. So when your wedding day arrives, you look like natural models. The goal is for you to know exactly what to expect and feel comfortable with a camera following you so everything goes as smooth as possible.
Touchbase – We have another opportunity to grab a coffee and for you both to get to know us better. Our mothers say we’re pretty awesome, so coffee and conversation with us would be fun. And since we will be following your every move on the BIG DAY, it’s another opportunity to touchbase! From start to finish, we’ll be there standing alongside your family and friends. We’re there documenting the moments of your day to keep forever!
Because it’s fun! – It’s a lot of fun to feel special. Well you are special; so let’s have fun with it! Getting to know us and having fun will help you relax on the big day. It can also be a great time to book your makeup trial on the same day so you can get an idea of how your makeup will look in pictures on your wedding day too.
Twister – We strive to take the stress out of the photo experience. No twister game here. We want you to feel comfortable and natural. We’ll take the time to answer lots of questions and give you directives on posing if needed or desired.
It’s easy – We have fun; you get to cuddle, kiss and be yourselves. We can just drink coffee, we can go for a walk, we can tromp through a field, go over a river, or through the woods. The bottom line is you’ve been acting like yourself your whole life; all you’ve got to do is be you. You can practice being you in front of us, so when your BIG DAY comes, you’re ready to do the same thing in front of oodles of your closest peeps. YAY!
Ask questions! – We walk, we talk, you ask questions, and we ask questions. We laugh. We tackle any tough questions and discuss any concerns, plus you have both of our undivided attentions to ask our opinion on stuff. “We” have lots of opinions…just ask Alex 
So… – There is a lot of value in an engagement session. In our mind, the best part is that you get to spend a few hours hanging out with some super duper people. If you need to cut the budget, let’s consider a payment plan. We really feel it’s important as these lasting images will be around forever, long after the flowers wilt, the cake is chomped and the presents are unwrapped.
I’ll add one (even though you didn’t do our wedding, since we didn’t know you back then… and you weren’t a photographer back then… and we didn’t live in Wisconsin back then…).
We weren’t planning on doing an engagement session (mostly because we had a short engagement and a LOT to do). But our photographer insisted. It WAS really fun. And I think the biggest benefit is that the photographer gets to experiment a little with what angles, etc., work best for each person. We felt that our wedding day pictures were much better because our photographer “knew” us.
(Miss you guys!)
Jennie
Great post! As a photographer I love getting know my clients better before the big day – it really helps put us all at ease, and get the best images possible. Thanks for the post guys!
Great post! We try explaining this word for word each time we have a consult. Everybodys on a budget nowadays but trust me, the engagement shoot is SO important when it comes to the wedding day, cut corners somewhere else. You’ll be glad you did. :]