Cost of engagement photoshoot?

Our engagement photo shoot is free with our wedding photography package, otherwise it would have been $500. This is in NYC.

You should do your engagement pics with the same person you book for your wedding. It's to ensure you like their style, and help you get comfortable with them and their shooting style and for them to get to know you as a couple. It's about that time for you to book your photographer anyway! Ours was included in our wedding package.

We chose to go through someone who just does photography on the side to save money and then have a professional photographer do our wedding photos. We just got out engagement photos back and we love them! We got 43 pictures on a CD so we can do whatever we want with them for only $70! If you find the right person, I highly recommend it!

Thanks for the advice everyone!

I've been researching wedding photographers today, and found some really awesome ones!! Photos that make me swoon!! But then I saw the prices for 1 day of wedding photos... 3000, 4000, 6000...yikes! I just don't think we could afford more than 2000. Luckily I think I found one with quality photos and within budget. With that, adding on engagement photos is +$250. Which after reading your responses, sounds about right. (This is in Texas).

But! I do have a good friend who is a freelance photographer. She mostly does pin-up and boudoir shoots, but has done weddings in the past. I'm considering asking her to do our engagement shoot, do you think $100 would be enough to ask a friend? Or is $150 better?

Or.... would you stress that we should just go with the wedding photographer package, and get to know them?

Stephanie, If you are trying to save money, recommend going through someone who does it on the side. But I don't know how important engagement pics are for you guys. We definitely wanted engagement pictures but the wedding photos are more important for us so we would rather spend more on wedding photos. $100 or even $150 is still a great deal considering what some professionals ask.

$500 in San Antonio, Texas

I charge $300.00 ala carte, (yes with shared rights) but you should really be shopping for a wedding photographer, and have them do the session. There are advantages to working together before the wedding. It may even be part of the package you want. IMO going with he friend is penny wise and dollar foolish.

AnnaKay nailed it.

I would wait to book with your wedding photographer, but from what I've seen at bridal shows, around $250.

Look for photographers that include engagement pictures in your wedding package. A lot of the photographers we looked at for wedding photography in Florida had the engagement session included. Our session lasted about 3 hours and we walked all over our location and got about 150 edited images with full rights.

Ours was included in our photography package. Before you book a session you should really look into wedding photography packages. You may be able to get a deal.

So our session was free and it included one print, but we decided we wanted them all and had our photographer make a book for us. That ended up costing around $300. We could have gone for a cheaper option though.

Ours is included in the package. It's best to wait until you find your wedding photographer. In the end it's cheaper and you really do need to be comfortable with your photographer b4 the big day. Remember, this is the vendor that will be most intimate with you and your family. This person will also be with you for the longest amount of hours.

Ours was thrown into our package for free. I would find your wedding photographer first and see if that may be an option or see if you could get a better deal on the session. At the very least, as others have said, you can really get to know your photographer and get more comfortable with them.