An Engagement Session Guide
Your Engagement Session
How to plan something that actually feels like you.
Your engagement session isn't a warm-up. It's its own thing. Ninety minutes where the two of you get in front of the camera together, learn how you move and laugh and lean into each other, and end up with images that look like your actual relationship. Not a Pinterest grid. Not a styled shoot. You.
Here's how I think about planning one, and how to make yours feel like home.
SECTION ONE
When to shoot
Light is the first decision. Every season has its own emotion.
Fall is warm and slow. The light drops earlier, everything goes amber, leaves do half the work for you. Spring is alive. Greens are loud, there's blossom everywhere, the air feels new. Summer is golden and long. You get hours of soft light before sunset and an excuse to be outside until ten. Winter is the quietest one. Bare branches, low light, sweaters, a kind of intimacy that doesn't exist in other seasons.
Within whatever season you pick, we'll shoot in the last hour or two before sunset. That's where the magic light lives. Sometimes we keep going into blue hour, when the sky turns and the world goes a little dreamy.
Tell me how you want the images to feel and I'll help you pick the season.
SECTION two
Where to shoot
Location is the second decision, and the one most couples overthink.
The best engagement sessions don't happen at the prettiest spot on Pinterest. They happen somewhere that means something. The trail you hiked on your first date. The apartment you're about to leave. The bar where you met. The beach he proposed at. The kitchen where you cook on Sundays.
If nothing specific calls to you, that's fine. Think about the kind of landscape that feels like the two of you. Coast, mountains, redwoods, desert, hill country, your own neighborhood. I shoot all over California and Utah, plus Texas, the Gulf Coast, and anywhere we want to fly.
Some of my favorite locations: in California, the coast north of Half Moon Bay, the redwoods up in Mendocino, the hills of Tilden and Mount Tam, the long beaches of Point Reyes, the rolling gold of Sonoma and Carmel. In Utah, the red rock of Moab and southern Utah, the alpine lakes near Park City, the Salt Flats at sunset. In Texas, hill country between Austin and Fredericksburg. Along the Gulf, anywhere the water meets the sky.
Or we shoot at home. Some of my favorite sessions are couples in their actual space, making coffee, dancing in the kitchen, on the couch with the dog. There's nothing more intimate.
Send me your thoughts and I'll send back a shortlist.
SECTION THREE
What to wear
Two looks, usually. One a little more dressed up. One softer, more lived-in. A sweater you actually wear, jeans, bare feet. The contrast gives your gallery range without making it feel costume-y.
A few quiet rules. Texture wins over trend. Linen, knit, silk, denim, anything with movement. Avoid hard logos and bright stark white if you can. Coordinated, not matching. If one of you is in earth tones, the other should be too. Think of it as a palette, not a uniform.
If you're stuck, send me what you're considering and I'll give you real opinions.
SECTION FOUR
What the session feels like
About sixty to ninety minutes. We start a little awkward and that's normal, even for me.
I direct gently. We walk, we talk, I'll ask you to whisper things to each other you wouldn't say with me there. We end up laughing. By the thirty-minute mark you'll forget the camera is in my hands. You don't need to know how to pose. You don't need to practice. You don't need to be a "camera person." That's literally my job.
If you want music, bring a speaker. If you want a champagne moment, bring the bottle. If your dog should be there for part of it, bring the dog.
SECTION FIVE
After the session
Your gallery delivers in three to six weeks.
From there, the images are yours to use however you want. Save-the-dates, your wedding website, your parents' Christmas card, the framed print above your bed. Most couples end up using a handful of them in places they never expected.
Ready
Reply to my email with your top thoughts on season and location. Or if you'd rather talk it through, book a call. We'll lock in the date and the plan. From there, it's just showing up.