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Tips to Help You Decide What to Wear to Your Engagement Session
What should I wear to my engagement session? Have you asked yourself that before? This is one of the most asked questions by our couples. Our couples always ask for ideas on what should they wear to their session and how they can coordinate outfits. I get that asked so much that I have a section dedicated to that in our client magazine, but I thought it was time I made a blog post about it with some inspiration!
I’ve said it time and time again but I love engagement sessions. They are one of my favorite things to do for a variety of reasons, but one of which is client connection. Matt and I feel that we are able to use an engagement session to get to know our couples, who they are together and how they interact with each other as well as help them to feel comfortable in front of the camera. Being photographed can be intimidating and it’s our job to put you at ease and help you to open up and be yourselves.
One of the first things that can help you to feel comfortable is what you wear. Let’s be honest when you have a great hair day or are in an outfit that you absolutely love, you feel great. You feel like you can tackle the day and that’s how we want you to feel during your session. There’s nothing worse than being in an outfit that you feel self-conscious in and that makes you withdraw. So it’s part of the experience that we offer to help our couples decide on outfits and how to coordinate them! I have some tips for that along with some of our couples choices that I absolutely love!
Here are some of the tips on what to wear to your engagement session that are in our client magazine that I encourage all of our couples to read to help them prepare for their session.
Hair & Makeup For Your Engagement Session
This tip is for brides. Go all in and treat yourself to a manicure and pedicure along with having your hair and makeup done. Having a profession take care of that for you means it’s less for you to worry about and you will look flawless! Plus professional makeup shows beautifully on camera!
Tips for Your Outfits
Tip 1:
When picking your outfits don’t try to match perfectly. Try to pick outfits and accessories that coordinate instead. Pick a dominant color and an accent color. Then build off of that. Maybe one of you wears a pattern and the other wears a solid color pulled from the pattern.
Tip 2:
Don’t be afraid to be yourself! Accessorize and make your outfits your own! Bold necklaces or earrings and fun shoes are always welcomed! Layers photograph so well! Bold nail colors done from a nail salon can also help brighten the scene.
– For her: long flowy dresses & skirts are highly encouraged as they photograph beautiful and create movement and are so flattering on the body.
– For him: long, fitted pants and closed toe shoes along with a button up are sophisticated and look great in photos. Shy away from shorts, sandals and t-shirts. Your images will be more timeless.
Tip 3:
Most patterns work fine, except for thin stripes or small plaid as the camera doesn’t register them too well either. I do suggest staying away from graphics; they are not favorable for portraits.
Tip 4:
Shy away from colors in the bright red, orange or fuchsia family as the digital camera has a hard time showing those colors well. Instead, choose soft neutral or muted tones such as soft pink or blue mixed with light gray, creams, brown leather or white.
Tip 5:
Bring more than one outfit. Most often, couples like to have one casual outfit and then one outfit that is dressier! This will give your shoot two totally different “looks”.
Tip 6:
Bring your furry friend. I love when our couples incorporate their pets into their session. They are apart of your family so make sure to bring them along!
Tip 7:
Pay attention to the season. If you want new blooms or fall colors, make sure to schedule your session at those peak times. If you don’t want to worry about sweating and your area is prone to very hot summers, then I suggest picking a time of year when it’s a bit more mild.
I hope this helps!! Here are a some recent examples of a few of our couple’s outfits that they chose for their sessions.
This is from Nicole and Ogden’s maternity session but I love this example of mixing patterns and coordinating colors!
Local Makeup Artists
If you’re prepping for an engagement session in the Charlotte, NC area here are some fabulous hair & makeup artists that you should contact!
