“But I don’t look good in photo’s… and my fiancé, well, he hates them! Why would we ever want an engagement shoot?” – I have been faced with this question many times.
My clients completely value photography and understand how important it is to document their big day. They love my work and we get along really well (an huge thing if you’re going to be spending at least 6-10 hours together on one of the most special days of your life). The truth is though, most people don’t particularly like photos – and this is completely understandable.
If you think back, generally the people taking photo’s of you have been parents or family (snapping ‘cute’ things that can sometimes just be hugely embarrassing), or friends, who’s photo’s are usually taken during an activity or on nights out – definitely not situations that guarantee flattering photos.
Now, I could give you all the normal reasons for having an engagement shoot that photographers tell clients. Things like, “it will give you the chance to get to know me,” or “you will get to see how I work,” or ” you will have beautiful images to use on your wedding website or for save the dates”. These are all fantastic reasons to have an engagement shoot. It is definitely good for you to get to know me and see how I work and it’s also great to have gorgeous photo’s of you as a couple, especially as for some couples I meet, these are the first professional photo’s they are having taken together.
But that not really what I want to tell you today. I actually want to tell you why I would have an engagement shoot.
I am someone who is passionate about the journey. I do my best to live in the moment, as this moment now is all that I really have – and if at this moment now you are engaged, that’s a pretty big thing.
To me, every new chapter in your life is worth documenting, but being engaged is a really special chapter. If you plan on getting married once, or even if this is your second chance at a happily-ever-after, this little sliver of time where you find yourself engaged is important. It may only last a few months and in relation to the rest of your life, that’s pretty short, but it’s important because it means something HUGE.
It means that you found someone, you fell in love and they are the person you want to commit to for the rest of your life. The one you want to love, whether things are happy and easy, or painful and hard.
It’s huge because it means your families will soon become one; because your family may grow in the future if you decide to have children. Your future will be different because you have decided to live it together as opposed to on your own.
Photographs are important because they will always stay the same, even if you don’t. I will grow older, get wrinkles, possibly go grey (let’s hope not too soon though) but these photo’s will not change. One day I will be able to sit with my children or grandchildren and show them what the man I love and I looked like before they arrived in our lives.
So yes, if I was engaged, I would have an engagement shoot to document and remember this little bit of time – this tiny chapter that precedes a much bigger one; that represents such a special promise.
Because this life is my story. It is unique to me and it deserves to be remembered – and so does yours!
