Photo on thumbnail courtesy of Ivan Garcia Studio.
Are you planning on proposing to your significant other in the near future? Maybe you’re on the other side and expecting a ring soon? Or possibly you’re already engaged and about to start the wedding planning journey? Regardless of which stage you’re at, we think you’ll find some helpful information in this week’s blog post. For those of you who are new to our wedding venue, welcome to Madera Estates! Our team runs a luxury wedding venue and event space located in Conroe, TX. Over the years, we have had the opportunity to host hundreds of magical wedding celebrations at our venue. With that being said, you’ll find that our blog is filled with resources and advice on different aspects of the wedding planning process. Whether that involves building out your vendor team, tips for simplifying the planning stages or anything else, there is certainly plenty to talk about.
With this week’s blog post, we will be talking about engagement photos. After all, I’m sure every couple would agree that they want a few awesome engagement photos to share with friends and family. Not to mention, you’ll also be able to utilize these in other places as well. Save-the-dates, invitations, decor on wedding day, you name it! Throughout this blog post, we’ll provide you with some advice on making sure your engagement photos are everything you envisioned them being and more. Keep in mind that when we mention engagement photos, we’re talking about the photoshoot that occurs in-between the actual proposal and the wedding day.
Engagement Photos Tip #1: Find the Right Photographer
For those who are familiar with our wedding blog, you probably know that we often talk about the important role vendors play in a wedding celebration. Photographers, florists, DJ’s, caterers, the list goes on. With this being the case, it’s extremely important to do your research and hire someone capable of truly knocking it out of the park. This thinking is no different when it comes to your engagement photos either, as you’ll want to find a qualified photographer capable of capturing this special moment flawlessly.
If you plan on using the same photographer for both your engagement photos and wedding, an engagement session can be the perfect time to establish a relationship with this important vendor. You’ll be able to get comfortable having your picture taken and connect with the photographer as to the style you’re hoping to achieve. All in all, while “practice” isn’t necessarily the best word to describe it, this can be thought of as a practice session in a way before the big day arrives!
Before we continue on, it’s also worth mentioning that you may find yourself using this as a “practice run” for another vendor as well, and that is your hair and makeup team. If you decide to have your glam professionally done for your engagement photos, this can be a great trial run.
Engagement Photos Tip #2: Find the Right Location
As you can likely guess, there are two main components to amazing engagement photos. The first part is a talented photographer capable of capturing the perfect lighting, angles and so on. We just highlighted this point above. Now…the second half of the equation is the picturesque backdrops that will truly make the photos pop! For this, you have a couple of different options at your disposal:
Your Venue: Do you already have your wedding venue selected? Selecting a wedding venue is clearly a major decision in the planning process and if you have one finalized, you could utilize it for engagement photos as well. This offers a number of advantages. For one, it’ll give your photographer a perfect opportunity to scope out picture-perfect photo opps around the venue (which will be great for the wedding day itself, especially if they’ve never worked a wedding there before). Secondly, it could be a cost saver too! For example, when you book your wedding at Madera Estates, you are also given access to the venue for your engagement photos as well.
Another Location: If you don’t already have your venue booked or are wanting something different, there are certainly plenty of other options to pick from. Particularly in larger cities (like the Houston area), there are more than a few possible locations. Whether that means you look around online for popular photo spots or lean on the expertise of your photographer (who has probably gone through this countless times), you’ll want to consider things like the backdrops available, lighting and so on.
Engagement Photos Tip #3: Share Them!
Thus far in this blog post, we’ve talked about how engagement photoshoots can be the perfect rehearsal for important wedding day vendors, why you’ll want a talented photographer on-site and the importance of location. Once you have the beautiful engagement photos in hand, what’s next?
Share with Loved Ones – First and foremost, you’ll want to share these stunning photos with your loved ones (no different than you will with your wedding photos themselves!).
Utilize on Save-the-Dates and Invitations – Depending on where you’re at in the wedding planning journey, you may very well know just how many tasks go into creating your “Best Day Ever.” Somewhere on that list of tasks, you will probably find save-the-dates and invitations. When designing these, you can certainly incorporate the professional engagement photos!
Decor on Wedding Day – Picking a beautiful wedding venue is definitely an important decision, but you can’t ignore the value of wedding day decorations either! After all, there’s a reason why so many couples include a professional florist on their vendor team to handle the floral arrangements part of the decor category. And unsurprisingly, engagement photos can fit flawlessly in a number of places around the venue on your big day.
In the end, engagement photos can be utilized in several different ways and are also simply a great keepsake that you’ll be able to look back on in the years to come. Long story short, YES, we think an engagement photoshoot is worth the investment!
Host Your Wedding (and Engagement Photoshoot) at Madera Estates!
If you were on the fence about having formal engagement photos taken, we hope this blog post helped answer any questions you may have had! It is definitely a worthwhile item to include in your wedding day budget. Not just for the fact that it’ll be something that’s tangible and memorable from this exciting time, but you can also utilize them for different items in your wedding planning journey (as outlined above).
As we mentioned earlier in this blog post, couples who book their wedding at Madera Estates also receive access to the venue for their engagement photos too. We understand engagement photos are an important part of the wedding planning process and want to make sure you have plenty of potential backdrops to ensure they turn out absolutely amazing! Plus…it’ll be a great time to get ideas together for the big day itself, establish a relationship with your photographer and get to view the venue that you already fell in love with. If you would like to learn more about Madera Estates, feel free to fill out the form HERE to request a copy of our Pricing Guide.