The Engagement Session

It's nice to get some time to blog this weekend. Usually I do my blogging during the week.

FH and I had our engagment shoot yesterday. It was so much fun! Now that I am on the other side, I have a few tips for your engagement session. More pictures to come but these are the ones she has given me so far.

Some tips for the engagment shoot:
1. Be aware that you will be uncomfortable for the first half hour. Be sure to let your photographer know if there is anything that is off limits. (kissing on camera, etc.) The best thing to do is to just go for it, you will loosen up after you go through some different poses and try different things.





2. Work with a good photographer! Tanyia was so fun to work with because of how energetic she was. As she put it, she's the lady who yells "BANANA" and makes animal noises to get her babies to laugh during pictures. A good photographer is going to make you feel at ease and capture those little shots of awkwardness and make them beautiful.

3. Wear comfortable weather-appropriate clothes. After having nightmares and spending a good 3 hours trying on different outfits, I settled on jeans, t-shirt and a red sweater. FH wore a button down, Navy sweater and jeans. We were both comfy. Warm however, we were not. It was about 36 degrees during our shoot and we were laying on the ground for some shots. I didn't wear long johns because I think they make me look fat, but in hind sight, I probably should have worn them.

4. Pick a good place to shoot and then go for it. Ask  your photographer where they would like to shoot. Tanyia picked out our spot and we ended up really loving it. The ranch dog, Buster, even made it into our pictures. Isn't he cute! There were the obvious places to shoot, the porches of the lodge and cabins, but then there were the unexpected spots, a winding road through trees, a vintage tractor, a clearing in the forest.

5. Work with a good photographer! I say this again for a different reason. Tanyia was very excited for our shoot. It wasn't just work for her. She couldn't wait to go home and edit the photos. I was emailing her like mad for 2 weeks before the shoot giving examples of engagement shots I loved from online wedding blogs. She emailed me back with things she loved. We have a great working relationship. Find a photographer that you like as a person, not just like their shots. It will matter in the photos!

6. Have fun. This should go without saying but even though your fiance may be less than enthused about going and getting his picture taken, remind him that it can be fun. These pictures are ones that you will show your kids and look at for years to come. Many couples complain that they wished they had more photos from their engagement.

Photography by Tanyia Oulman, tanyiaoulmanphotography.com