Engagement photos: yay or nay?

Can you get another photographer to do your engagement photos? Traveling from up north to Florida just for a two hour or less session seems a bit much. You could also just have a friend take a few pictures for you

I have a similar situation. We went ahead and did engagement photos in Florida and we'll have a different photographer for our wedding in Alabama. I think it was worth it since we don't have any nice pictures of us together.

View Quoted Comment Thanks Apryl! That's definitely the dillema I'm having. Similarly, we've been together for over 8 years and don't have a lot of really nice pictures either, just selfies of us dress up for other weddings haha!

We did a minimony in FL and we’re doing a larger reception in Maine next year. We have separate photographers. My Maine photographer includes a one hour engagement session in her package, so she switched that to coming to the welcome party the night before for an hour (we didn’t want to fly up just for an engagement session).

And when I was looking for my minimony photographer in FL, tons of photographers offered engagement sessions for reasonable prices ($200-300) in palm beach county. So if you want some nice couple photos, go for it!!

We had a different photographer for our engagement and our wedding photos. Mostly because of scheduling/location.

It's totally fine, you just negotiate a contract for each.

I did engagement photos without a package deal and we are marrying in a different state than where we live as well. We paid only $235 for our engagement photos.

Many photographers have the bundle to save you money, but that doesn't necessarily mean you have to do it. For example, my photographers are doing engagement, wedding, and a short wedding video for us all in one (also I am in FL and they are traveling photographers in case you want to look them up). The choice is really yours on what you want to do. You could have a FL photographer and another up north. Just look into what you can afford and what you want.

You could always get a separate photographer. If you don't want to pay for the extra expense then its okay to skip it!

We are in the same situation, just with different states. Originally we opted not to do engagements with our photographer, but due to postponing the wedding we had some time when visiting family. That said, I’m really glad we did the shoot. The pictures are great, the extra price we paid our photographer ($200) was super reasonable, and - most importantly- we got to work with her before the actual wedding. We now know her style of giving cues and helping us pose, plus she feels more like a friend after 2hrs together. After seeing the pictures I also know a few things I want to do differently (posing, smiling, makeup) on my wedding day!

Thanks everyone! This was all very helpful! My biggest delimma was paying for two different photographers in two different locations etc. Ideally I did want to stick with one, as you stated Kristen, you got to establish an understanding of style, direction etc. Thank you everyone for your advice. I appreciate the price of what you guys spent because where I , it's averaging $500 which is a lot for just engagement photos. Kristen, I never thought about the result of engagement photos regarding gmake up, posing, etc.


My next questions is: you do your own make up for engagement photos typically correct?
Thanks again everyone! 💕

View Quoted Comment You could schedule your makeup trial for the same day. That way you also get to see how it photographs.