Engagement Portrait Photographer

Amy Bennett is a wedding and portrait photographer in Vermont specializing in capturing beautiful and authentic engagement photos.

Why To Have An Engagement Session

“Do we have to take engagement photos?” This is a question I’ve been asked more than a few times by couples who have chosen me to be their wedding photographer. The truth is, no of course not. You are adults and I cannot make you do anything you don’t want to do. Plus you are adults who I work for and I’m not going to argue with you because I am a professional. But I do think engagement photos are great and I firmly believe that all couples should do an engagement shoot if they can. Below are some concrete reasons why an engagement session is worth your time and effort.

Practice posing together: Maybe you and your partner have posed for a lot of photos together and maybe you haven’t. Either way, I can pretty much guarantee that on your wedding day you will be photographed together more than ever before. (And you may never take be in that many photographs on a single day ever again!) This can be overwhelming because of course you want to look great together in your wedding photos, but sometimes posing with a partner is a little trickier than posing by yourself. The best way to figure out the ways you fit together and the natural ways in which your bodies move together is to practice and an engagement session is your best opportunity to devote some time to practicing in front of a great camera.

Increase your confidence in front of the camera: If you didn’t already know before, after you see your engagement photos, you’ll realize how incredible you and your partner look together when you’re being your authentic selves. This confidence boost is just what some couples need in order to feel free to pose with confidence and ease during the couple’s portrait session on their wedding day. This is also a great opportunity to see which poses you like the best in photos of yourselves and to practice those even more so that you can replicate them on the big day.

Get your money’s worth: My wedding photography package includes engagement session coverage and I want all of my clients to get their money's worth.

Allow me to get to know you as a couple and as photography subjects: Meeting the couple ahead of time and seeing the way they photograph naturally together is also very important to me and allows me to do my best work on your wedding day. During your engagement session, I'll learn which poses come naturally to you and which things I need to remind you about. You'll also get to know me and the way I work and we will get a feel for each other's personalities.

Get some professional photos that are also casual: After your wedding, you will have hundreds of great photos of you and your partner. But you will be in your wedding attire in every single one. One great benefit of engagement photos is that they showcase the two of you in a way that’s a bit more casual than wedding photography can. I’m also happy to snap some headshots of each individual so that you can use them for LinkedIn or whatever else you may need them for!

Engagement photos are useful: Your engagement photos can be used for save-the-dates, wedding invitations, holiday cards, or thank you cards for pre-wedding events like showers. If you really love the photos, you may want to hang one on the wall of your home together or start your wedding album early. There is no end to the usefulness of engagement photos, especially since you are in the midst of planning and designing an event centered around the two of you.

Engagement Session Locations

My wedding photography clients come from all over, but the majority of them live in Vermont, the greater New England area, or New York. Most of my clients’ weddings will be in Vermont or New England, but some are destination weddings in tropical locations.

My favorite engagement session locations can be found here, but I am always thrilled when a couple decides to choose a location that is meaningful to them in some way. A meaningful location can breathe life into your engagement photos and make them all the more special to you.

No matter the type of wedding or location of the wedding, I always recommend that my couples do an engagement session with me before their wedding day. I am happy to travel to you if it is mutually convenient schedule-wise and you are unable to come to Vermont before your wedding week.

If you really don’t have time in your schedule for an engagement session, we can figure something else out. Check out the “Engagement Session Alternatives” section below and feel free to contact me to discuss your unique situation.

Engagement Session Alternatives

Sometimes I don't get to meet a couple in person until the day before their wedding. For whatever reason, they can't make it up to Vermont before the wedding or they simply choose not to have an official engagement session. When this happens, I make it a point to stop by the rehearsal dinner (with their permission, of course!) and snap a few photos.

By photographing you at your rehearsal dinner, you get all of the benefits of an engagement session (though you get them months later). You can also get some photos of the bridal party and the rehearsal dinner details if your rehearsal dinner is a more elaborate production. It can be nice for me to get to know the people at your rehearsal dinner, since they tend to be your VIP guests and family members. Sometimes I interact with a client mostly through their mother, so I love to meet the person I’ve been talking too at events like this.

Couples that are having destination weddings occasionally opt not to have an engagement session before their wedding because destination weddings tend to include welcome parties, rehearsal dinners, and the actual ceremony and celebration as part of the wedding photography coverage. Though it’s still great to meet up and get to know each other and what poses work best for you before the wedding weekend, I understand that you are already getting some of the benefits of an engagement session by having your wedding photographer photograph your pre-wedding events.