Necessary or Not: Engagement Photos?

View Quoted Comment

That's a good school of thought, Candace. I can understand where you're coming from.

We didn’t do them, but I can see why people did.

Not necessary, capturing special moments as they occur says a lot more than posing for a photo shoot.

No they are not necessary and I have never understond why you get engagement pics done and you can take that money you spend on the engagement pics and put it else where for the wedding day or honeymoon. Just my thinking

Not necessary for us. I did a small shoot with a friend who does photography just so we had pictures for the website, but it was low key and my favorite word, FREE

I want these and they were included in our wedding photography package

I don’t think they’re necessary. I honestly don’t care though because my fiancé has a professional camera to take pictures with and I know that there are a few people who are real good photographers in our family and group of friends. So, if we really wanted engagement photos we wouldn’t have to waste the money on it.

We weren't planning on them but my sweet baby sister offered to do a low-key shoot, so sure! We're waiting for spring so we can take advantage of DC's gardens. Not sure what we'll use them for, but it's always nice to have nice photos!

We came across some photographers who made them mandatory (to get to know the couple). It was built into the price and we thought it was really cute. However since we live 500 miles away from our venue and photographer and didn't want to shell out extra we skipped on it.

Not neccassary

I say no, but nice if you can afford them!

View Quoted Comment

Man, that's a bit of a bummer! Did the package you end up settling on with your photographer have an engagement shoot built in?

Not a necessity! We've been engaged for over 2 years and weren't gonna do them at all, plus we had just taken family pics back in October and were using them for invites and stuff. But then we hired our photographer and it was offered for free and we're soooo glad we did them!

View Quoted Comment It did. He was willing to reduce the price for not doing it which was great because he was about that much out of our budget.

We definitely want to have them to use for Save The Dates/Invites, but will have a family member take them with her camera rather than pay for additional photo session with photographer.

By no means do I think it's a "must do," but there are countless positives to it that if it's in your budget/included with your photographer's cost, I feel you should really take advantage.

I personally always thought engagement photos were extremely cheesy. So often you see pictures of couples snuggled up with each other who are never like that in real life. When I got engaged and started to gather more information, I realized it all comes down to your photographer. You need a photographer that works with you and for you. If you aren't a snuggly couple, you need a photographer that will ask those questions and capture your true relationship.

I feel the biggest positives to doing engagement photos are 1) getting to know your photographer and the 3 of you getting a chance to figure out what works best BEFORE your wedding day, and 2) who doesn't want some NICE pictures of you and your fiancé in your normal every day clothes?

My photographer's wedding package price includes an engagement session for the sole purpose of getting to know us before the wedding and figuring out how to best photograph us.

I don’t think they’re 100% necessary. If you plan on doing save the dates I think they’re a good idea and they’re fun for making and capturing memories. I did them but again not 100% necessary

Not a necessity. We aren’t getting them done for our wedding and that’s ok. It’s an added expense that we decided was skippable.

I think our wedding website and save-the-dates would have been pretty boring without them, but I guess they're not absolutely necessary. We had pictures of us, but they were very amateur. I felt more confident with the professional pictures.

We skipped this. We both hate getting our picture taken