How to Choose the PERFECT Location for Your Engagement Session
April 4, 2017
Of all the beautiful places in the world, how can you decide on the perfect location for your engagement session? Well, here are a few questions we ask our brides as they think through where they may want to do their session with us!
Do You Want to Keep A Consistent Visual Theme?
If that question sounds complicated, all we mean is this: do you want your engagement session and your wedding portraits to have a totally consistent look and feel to them?
Most wedding venues will allow their brides to come to the venue when they aren’t hosting a wedding to do their engagement session. If keeping a consistent visual theme is important to you, this is a great option! This way, your engagement photos and your wedding portraits will be like an extension of each other – two different chapters in the same book all about you!
Ashley and Greg had both their engagement session and their wedding day captured at Mount Ida Farms, so the themes of sunset, nature, rolling hills and intimacy would be consistent across all their images!
Or Do You Want to Totally Mix It Up?
We know that a consistent visual theme isn’t for everyone! Some couples love variety, and would rather have a totally unique engagement session, so mixing up the location is a must!
This is what Hunter and I did! While planning our hilltop barn wedding set in the Blue Ridge Mountains, we totally mixed things up and did our engagement session at the Virginia Beach oceanfront!
Kalene and Reid let their love for hiking and the outdoors show in their colorful fall session along the skyline drive, which was a beautiful compliment to their elegant spring wedding at a local tree nursery!
Is There Somewhere Special to You?
Sometimes it isn’t even about the aesthetic of a location, but it’s sentimental value. Every relationship has one or two places that are special to them, and maybe that’s what makes the most sense for you and your fiancé! Think about where you had your first date, where you first said “I love you”, or where he proposed.
Last year we had the joy of photographing Kaitlin and Joshua during their beautiful and timeless October wedding at Barboursville Vineyards here in Charlottesville. The reason they chose that location for their wedding – and their engagement session – is because of how much it meant to them. Joshua proposed to Kaitlin in Italy, and Barboursville’s Italian vintner made Barboursville their own little local slice of Italy. They had been members at the Vineyard for some time, and it felt like the perfect fit for them.
Kaitlin and Joshua’s wedding portraits AND their engagement session were both at Barboursville Vineyards, a place that had a TON sentimental value to them.
But Wait, There’s More!
Although we hope this blog has been helpful, this is just a taste of all the information that we share to help our couples plan their engagement session. What about planning a date or even a start time for the session? What should your bring with you? What about planning a destination engagement session?
Well, have no fear! Every couple that books their wedding day with us gets a complimentary copy of our Engagement Session Style Guide, a 42-page full-color magazine that’s choc-full of tips and tricks to look and feel your best for your engagement session! We put this together specifically for our brides-to-be so that “engagement session” and “stressful” are never in the same sentence.
Happy planning!
Hunter + Sarah
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While you’re thinking about these questions, feel free to check out our website designed specifically for engaged brides! Read what past HSP couples have to say about us, and learn more about what an experience with us is like!