Will We Regret Skipping Engagement Photos?

We didn't do them for stds, but we did them for peace of mind for working w our photographer, so it was 100% worth it in that regard

I just had my co-workers best friend who is a pro photographer starting out. I think they are worth the $120.00 we spent on them but I know a lot of engagement photos can run a ton more. If they were much more I would have passed too. I like having them in not wedding attire.

If you're worried you might regret it, maybe you could just have amateur photos done. There's no need to pay for another photographer especially since you already sent out your STDs.

I also don't think your engagement photos need to align with your wedding necessarily. We're having our photos done around October in a park with beautiful fall colors. Our wedding is in August by the beach. Totally different settings and I'm really happy about it because I feel the point is just to have beautiful pictures with your SO to announce that you will be getting married. We are going to include our engagement photos around our venue during the wedding reception as well. We have a large antique trunk we purchased and are transforming into a card box on one side and dedicating the back and the other side to photos from throughout our relationship.

I'm only getting them taken because they're included in our wedding photo package. We aren't using them for STDs or anything, I'm just hoping to get one or two that are decent enough to frame in our bedroom. When I asked my FH if he wanted to do an engagement session when we first got engaged (since we have a longer engagement), his response was, "Why? I already know what you look like." He's sentimental like that. Haha so it hasn't really been a priority of ours. There are occasionally some mini sessions on Groupon in SD believe it or not for like $100 so if you just want maybe 30 minutes for 1 or 2 photos that might also be an option!

I think by far the most important reason to do an engaement shoot is to get comfortable with your photographer(s) in advance of the wedding day. If it's not possible to use the people you will be working for the wedding itself, I don't think it would be worth doing. Just my personal opinion.

I wanted to skip them, but they're included in our photography package. So we're going to do the thing but keep it a secret and give our parents nice prints as their Christmas gift. FMIL always talks about how she doens't have nice, recent pictures of FH, so I think she'll appreciate it.

Nope. They don't need to "match" the wedding. They are just some nice professional photos of the two of you. You can get those done anytime, so if you don't want to do engagement pics then don't.

I won't.

No engagement photos and no regrets over here. But i hate pictures. a lot.

Like you, I'm having a destination wedding and planned to forgo engagement photos. I live in San Diego and am getting married in big sur. I actually randomly came across a photographer on Instagram and thought her photos were so beautiful I decided to look into engagement photos with her. I've since booked with her and her price is very reasonable. Im also very self conscious right now, as a result of weight gain but I thought this could be a great practice to get me comfortable for my wedding pictures. I know you are concerned about not being able to find a place in San Diego that looks like New Orleans but I'm actually looking for the opposite look for my engagement photos. I'm getting married in a forest and then going to the beach for wedding photos but for my engagement photos I'm actually looking for a more mountain or desert feel just they're different from the wedding photos.

We skipped it. It's actually included w our package, but we booked a photog where we are getting married (my hometown 6 hrs away) so it just wasn't really convenient for us to get down there for an engagement shoot, then after we sent stds we weren't sure there was any point so we never prioritized it.

We are skipping them. We have lots if pictures together from dates and vacation that I'm thinking of using for our invitations. We are doing a postcard invite that is also a keepsake. If you have the extra $$$ do them but if not don't worry about it.

They aren't necessary but I felt like they helped us get more comfortable in front of a camera. We also had a DW in a different state but our photographer came to our home town to shoot the engagement pictures.

We got married out of state and using our wedding photographer in DE for engagement pictures in AZ was out of the question. We ended up choosing to hire another photographer in AZ to do engagement pictures. We're really bad at remembering to take pictures of us together, so it was awesome to get some really nice couple pictures of us.

We absolutely didn't worry about matching the aesthetic of our wedding venue. We chose to go somewhere that we both really liked, the local botanical garden.

I don't regret doing the engagement photos, but I also think that anyone who isn't that excited about doing them will end up regretting their choice to skip them.

We were going to skip them, but I found a local photographer where FH lives, that's actually half the price of the one here in the States. So I'm setting up E-pics for next month when I'm up in BC for two weeks.

Honestly I think engagement pics are a waste of money. My MOH offered to do a fun photo session for us for free just to have something, but we are not doing professional pictures. We will have a wonderful pro photographer for our day of and I think that's more important.

E pics are totally optional. If you're not feeling it and/or don't want the added cost, then don't force it. About 1/2 my couples do an E session.

I was married previously. Before things went south, I regretted not having engagement photos. I really wanted them but was super poor and really it wasnt a thing we thought about. Upside now is that i have less photos i had to burn after we split.

I love my engagement photos that were done this time around and they were included in my package. I can see wanting to save money, but I would even opt to have a few nice pictures taken. Thats just me.

ETA: Our photos did not line up with our venue or anything other than us. We picked some nice clothes we liked and did it at a local park in our city. We are having a beach DW and nothing like that near my engagement photos.

FH and I have a short engagement so we didn't have time to do them. Plus it would be a little excessive for us. Our photographer is our church's photographer so we used the photos that he took of us before for our invites. I don't regret it not doing engagement photos but I think it's a personal choice to do them or not and we don't have to subscribe to mainstream traditions if it doesn't suit our needs.

I was going to skip it, but it came with our photo package and our photographer suggested it as a way for him to get to know us as a couple before the big day. We are going to use them for our STDs. If you've already done STDs and it wouldn't be the photographer you'd work with on your wedding day, I would say save the money for something else. You can always have a friend take some nice pictures of you on an iphone if you are looking for something for your wedding website.