An hour together before the wedding, with nothing at stake. It is the single best thing you can do to make your wedding photographs better.
Most couples have never been photographed properly together. So on the wedding day, the first time a camera is pointed at just the two of you, you tense up, and it takes twenty minutes of your golden hour to loosen off again.
An engagement shoot gets that out of the way weeks earlier, with no guests, no schedule and nothing riding on it. You learn how I work, I learn how you two actually are with each other, and by the wedding we are not strangers. The difference in the wedding photographs is not subtle.
Before anything else, we have a coffee. No obligation, no pitch, just getting to know each other and your day. If your engagement ring is ready, I will usually photograph it there and then and send you the image, on me.
Couples use it for save the dates and invitations, and it is a genuinely nice thing to have regardless. A ring shot is a small, careful piece of photography and it deserves more than a phone on a kitchen bench.
Before a session I will ask you for the photographs you are drawn to. A Pinterest board, screenshots off Instagram, anything at all. It tells me the style you want and which shots actually matter to you far faster than a conversation does, and it means we spend the session making those pictures rather than working out what we are after.
This is a session thing rather than a wedding thing. On a wedding day I already know what I am doing, it is automatic. A session is the one where your taste should drive it.
Wherever suits the two of you, which is usually one of three things.
An hour is plenty. Bring one change of clothes if you want variety, wear shoes you can walk in, and eat beforehand.
How it is booked, and what it costs. An engagement shoot is its own session rather than something bundled into a wedding package, so you can have one whether or not I am shooting your wedding.
A simple session on location, a beach or a park, is a very different piece of work to a magazine style shoot with a full lighting setup like the wine barrel frames in my portfolio. The second one is technical, it needs the venue's permission, and it usually means bringing someone to work the lights.
So I do not put a price up. What makes sense depends on where you want to go and how much setting up it takes, and I would rather work it out with you than publish a number that turns out to be wrong. Tell me what you are picturing when we have our coffee. Couples booking a wedding with me always get something special.
Not everyone booking a couples shoot is getting married, and that is completely fine. Anniversaries, a long distance visit, or simply the fact that there are no good photographs of the two of you together. Same approach, same hour.
If you are planning the wedding too, start on the main page, or read about elopements if you are keeping it small.
Send me your details and I will set up a no-pressure coffee. Bring the ring if it is ready.
Check my date is available