If you’re engaged and looking for a wedding photographer or you already have one lined up, you’re probably wondering whether or not you should have engagement photos taken. From my experience, most couples prefer to have their engagement pictures taken, but some skip out on it. If you’re in the majority, however, I have a proposition to make: If they can, have your wedding photographer shoot your engagement photos too! Here’s why.

1. You can get to know each other.

The engagement session gives you a chance to get to know your photographer better and it helps them get to know you before the big day!

2. You can take a trial run.

Being in front of a camera can feel totally weird if you’re not used to it. One time when you don’t want to feel weird is on your wedding day, so an engagement session could help you have a trial run. This will give you a crash course in posing, photography direction, lighting, and finding your most flattering angles.

As a photographer, I really love having a chance to pose my couples and walk them through some basic coaching before their wedding day. This ends up saving everyone a ton of anxiety and uncertainty when the wedding finally rolls around!

3. You can make even more memories.

Being engaged is such a special thing that often gets overlooked in the wedding process. After all, the moment you got engaged was the moment both of you said, “Yes. I want to spend the rest of my life with this person,” and that’s something you’ll always want to remember. An engagement shoot is a perfect way to do that, and if you have the shoot with your wedding photographer, you can bank on having a really cohesive collection of photos that all meld together beautifully.

Bonus:  You can print your Save the Dates using your engagement session photos and use them to spruce up that bare wall in your house that you don’t know what to do with!

And there you have it! Three amazing reasons to get the most out of your relationship with your wedding photographer. I absolutely love seeing my couples go from being engaged to being married, and I know that in the end, they appreciate all of the memories that are captured from behind the lens.