Why I Include Engagement Sessions | Christa Rene Photography

It’s not unusual at all that I receive an email asking if the engagement session can be taken out of the wedding package to make the price lower. That’s a great question! I used to have them separate, and have photographed weddings where I didn’t shoot their engagement session!

However, after shooting around 50 weddings and working with couples who have done either option, having the couple in front of my camera for their engagement session is SO helpful! Here’s why!

First, the couple can become more comfortable in front of my camera for the wedding day. This releases a lot of stress for wedding pictures! The first minutes of being in front of any camera is really awkward! It’s new, intimidating, and it’s weird kissing in front of someone who’s taking pictures of you! I do my absolute best to make couples feel comfortable and relaxed in front of the camera during the engagement session! So on their wedding day, they already trust me and know they don’t have anything to worry about and can relax like they did in their engagement pictures, so the “warm up” time is less!

Also, I get to know the couple better. I love meeting and communicating with brides leading up to the wedding over email or coffee! I get to know my brides way better than my grooms obviously! So it’s that much more important for me to interact and get to know them as a couple, instead of just knowing my bride really well and the groom feeling out of place. I also can better capture them as a couple on the wedding day if I’ve already seen them together and know how they interact and how I can make them feel the best in front of my camera!

Last and most important, I do the SAME POSES for engagement sessions and weddings! So on the wedding day, they’ve already have done the poses and know what to expect! Often the guy will even go in for a nuzzle before I even tell him to because I do the same thing repeatedly, just slightly different or in a different setting! So when they KILL it at the engagement session, I just let them know we’ll do the EXACT same thing on the wedding day so they’re already a step ahead!

Here’s some photos of my couples from engagement session to wedding day totally rocking the posing!!