What to wear to your engagement shoot? I love engagement sessions. They’re so much fun because they provide us with the freedom to take our time with your photos. This means you’ll get used to the camera without the time pressures of the wedding day.
Engagement shoots also give us a chance to get to know each other before the wedding. This is invaluable as it means on the wedding day you’re super relaxed around me because it’s not a new thing to have your photograph taken by me.
Relaxed couples = better photos!
A question I always get asked is: “What should we wear at our engagement session?”
This is a pretty crucial question, especially if you’re planning to use these photographs on your save-the-dates, guest book, wedding website or invitations etc.
Planning a wedding can be stressful in itself, the last thing I want is you worrying about what to wear to your engagement session!
I’ve put together some top tips that I’ve learned over the years as to what looks good and what works well together. I hope these can help you and provide you with some much-needed inspiration on what to wear to your engagement shoot!
The most important tip I can give you is to be the best version of yourself. Wear that dress you love but think is a little over the top, wear that bold patterned shirt or the expensive scarf. This way you’ll have beautiful photos that you’ll want to show off!
What to wear to your engagement shoot!
1. Co-ordination is Key!
Make sure you’re both dressing like you’re going to the same place. If you wear a dress, your partner might want to wear a smart shirt. If they go casual then you can match the level of casual too.
Imagine you’re going on a date to a restaurant and wear something similar. You want to be co-ordinating without matching.
If you both wear blue jeans, make sure your tops are different colours or at least different shaded of the same colour.
2. Pattern is Paramount!
If one of you wants to wear a pattern, then use that pattern as the base for the rest of your outfits. Choose a colour from the pattern and use it to style the rest of your clothing choices.
See below: Paige wore a black and white dress so carl wore a white shirt with black jeans. They both wore different colours of the same shoe as well to tie their outfits together.
3. Level it up with Layers!
Wearing layers is an easy way to add some pattern as well as be able to change up an outfit easily. You can layer and accessories to mix-up the photos by wearing a scarf, a hat or a cardigan or jacket. You can keep them on for some photos and remove them for others.
Note below how Sarah’s scarf matches the pattern on Kieran’s shirt?
4. Choose Classic!
Try to choose outfits which won’t date your photographs. You should avoid clothes with are new in fashion as they might not be fashionable in a few years time.
Also avoid big logos, words or phrases on clothing too. This can also date your photos super fast.
5. Can’t Decide? Bring Multiple Outfits!
If you just can’t decide what to wear you can always bring a couple of outfits! As long as you’re happy to do a quick change in a fairly public area then this could be the option for you.
Amy had two beautiful dresses for her engagement session with Conor and couldn’t decide which one so we used both!
6. Relax and Have Fun!
The way to get the best photos of you both is for you to be super relaxed and just having fun! This is when we can capture your most authentic selves within your relationship.
I hope this helped you decide what to wear to your engagement shoot!