If you just recently got engaged, hired your wedding photographer and are planning for your big day, then you know just how hard it is to make big decisions about the different parts of the process. From save the dates to hiring vendors for the wedding to everything in between, you have many things to consider! Today I want share with you how to choose a location for your engagement photos to make this one step of the planning process just a bit easier for you!

I also wanted to take an opportunity to share with you how choosing engagement session locations specific to you and your relationship would affect your photos. Kennedy and Robby are one of my lovely couples planning to get married next year, and they decided to be really intentional with their engagement session locations. We planned an engagement session that was just like a date that they would go on. In fact, the last location of their session, The Baked Bear, was actually the location of their first date!

A ‘Date’ Engagement Session

Kennedy and Robby chose to start their session with their pups at River Rat Brewery, then head to the USC Horseshoe for a few more formal-eqsue portraits since Robby is a USC grad. After those portraits, we wrapped up with a sweet treat at The Baked Bear. It was the perfect little session that allowed me to capture how they interact, how they move around each other, and them in a natural, comfortable setting that they were used to. Their engagement session was not only super fun for me as their photographer, but also a great time for Kennedy and Robby because it was just like any other date they would take on the weekend! Much better than standing in front of a camera and smiling for an hour or two, no?? 

Now I’ll stop going on and on about how much I loved photographing and Kennedy and Robby’s ‘date’ engagement session and get to the good stuff! Here are three tips for you to help you choose your engagement session location for when it’s your turn to take engagement photos with your fabulous wedding photographer!

How to Choose a Location your Engagement Photos

MAKE IT PERSONAL

The first step in choosing your engagement session location is make it personal. You want to choose a location that is significant to your relationship!  You and your partner are going to want to choose a location that isn’t just some random park in your town, but is a place that means something to you. Maybe a place that is similar to the place you first met or actually is the place you first met. Or maybe repeat a date idea that you’ve done together for your engagement photos. It might be your favorite local brewery (like Kennedy & Robby did) or you could request to go mini-golfing!

No matter what you choose, no answer is a wrong answer if the location is important to you two and your relationship. It can be sentimental, actionable, or just beautiful, as long as it MEANS something.

DO SOMETHING YOU LOVE TOGETHER

The second step thinking about what you two like to do together! If you don’t have a location nearby that is personal or important to you, a great way to incorporate your relationship into your engagement photos would be to do something for the photos that you love to do together. Make it like you’re going on a date with your sweetheart like any other Friday night and invite your photographer along!

It could be riding bikes in your new town or grabbing a few double scoops from the local creamery down the street. Just as long as you two do something you do together that you actually enjoy doing together and go from there! What better way to grab natural, real photos of your relationship than to do something you’re used to doing together and know you love?

*Disclaimer this might require hiring a bit of an adventurous wedding photographer like myself! So be sure to run this idea by your tog before locking down any contracts if photos of something a little out of the ordinary is an idea you love! Or, ya know, just reach out to me, and I’d be happy to travel anywhere in the world to make your dream engagement photos a reality!

KEEP IT SIMPLE AND UNIQUE

The third and final step to think about when choosing your engagement session location is to keep it simple, but make it unique. Keep it simple by not putting yourself under too much pressure to perform too much or do too much during your photos, instead make it unique to you! Getting photos taken is stressful to begin with and can really be a struggle sometimes for couples that don’t feel comfortable in front of a camera. We want to make this process as easy as possible by not asking too much of you and your partner and by shaping this engagement experience around *you*.

Every couple is different and every love story is unique, so getting to know your photographer and sharing your story with them might be able to help you settle down on a location that might come to mind from them.  If you chat with your tog about your lives together, your love story, or your hobbies, I’m sure they will be able to propose an idea of where to take your engagement session photos after that chat!

HOW FIND YOUR ENGAGEMENT SESSION LOCATION

So there you have it: three simple steps on how to help you choose your engagement session location! The best way to have a beautiful engagement session that results in gorgeous images is by making sure you and your partner are comfortable in the outfits you choose, excited to be in the sentimental locations you’ve chosen and to just let the fabulous tog you’ve hired do the rest!

Engagement Session Ideas: 

–Grabbing coffee

–Going to a local brewery

-Going on a bike ride

–Taking a stroll on the beach

–Cuddling up on the couch with a good book

–Cooking in their kitchen

–Walking through their favorite city

How to Choose a Location your Engagement Photos

I hope you enjoyed these three tips on how to choose your engagement session location, my friends! I also hope you loved seeing how Kennedy and Robby’s engagement session came together within their images after planning their very own unique, date-engagement session. Remember, your engagement photos should commemorate your dating relationship and connect with you in an intentional way, so choose your engagement session location based on who you are, how you love, and what that looks like!