Photos Tips/trick

No I love these!

Honestly the squat and pet the dog pose really only works if you're not in a dress at all (ours also looked a bit awkward on my half)

I think all 4 of the pictures you shared are beautiful, but those last 3 especially are so great. I think as long as you're wearing something you feel beautiful in, your photographer should be helping you to do the rest. We did a lot of movement poses with ours and I think that helped a ton. Lots of giggly prompts and cheesy things to say to each other, but we ended up with genuine smiles and organic looking pictures (with posed ones mixed in, obviously).

Another thing you can do is chat with your photographer and point out the things you maybe didn't like as much about your engagement photos and see what their suggestions are for the next time?

I think you two are very obviously in love, and that your pictures show that. I think the two of you look beautiful. And I think your dog is beyond perfect. I think you just happened to fall victim to the unfortunate "squat and pet" pose while wearing your dress. Do you have any other pictures of you standing up in the dress? It looks flowy and magical.

Cute pictures

These are SO cute Ana!! ❤️

I love the denim outfits, your location, and that you included your pup!

View Quoted Comment Thank you for your kind words! You’re too sweet


I actually had one more picture in the blue dress and it looks pretty big on me

Thank you for the love ladies!


I’m hoping I like the rest of the photos a little better in a few weeks

View Quoted Comment No I promise I love it 😭😭

Love your pics!

Knowing exactly how to pose your body and feeling comfortable in front of the camera takes work. The more subjects you add, the more complicated it gets. We all have unflattering angles, and there are plenty of photos from my wedding that I just don't care for as well as many I love. Keep in mind what you see from other's weddings and engagement shoots are highlights (as is every single advertising shot featuring professional models; they do many takes to get "the" shot).

My advice would be, 1) try to get as comfortable as you can in front of the camera. Even if it means having other people take more photos of you, just so you become less self conscious of a camera being around and taking pictures of you. Also, 2) learn your own best angles and don't be afraid to tell your photographer the type of photos you want or poses that make you feel sexy as well as ones that are less comfortable. I have some really awesome photos of me in my dress posing in front of my mirror at home but our photographer didn't direct me in the same way, and I just look kind of stubby when I'm just standing vs extending my arms or legs for example. In a lot of the photos of my husband and I kissing, he looks a little hunch backed because I'm shorter than him and we didn't realize it until after. I easily could have stood on my toes or something! So I say work your own angles in front of a mirror and then replicate them with your photographer later. Lastly 3) communicate with your photographer. If you are asked to do something that doesn't feel comfortable or doesn't feel like "you" say something. My photographer was a fan of these "press your foreheads together and close your eyes shots" and they are awkward AF. I hate every shot like this, and wish I had just said "that's not really us, let's do something more playful and candid instead."

My photographer was awesome - I don't want to make it sound like she wasn't. But I do feel like I learned a lot about being a subject (I'm a photographer, but rarely "in" many photos) and if I did it all again I would probably take a bit more control of the situation and provided more guidance as to what I as a client really wanted.

View Quoted Comment Thank you for your feedback! We got the remaining photos back & there’s at least a few I actually like.


I absolutely agree with what you’re saying about getting comfortable and I’ll be talking our wedding photographers to see what suggestions they might have for us. This engagement shoot was definitely good practice for us though overall. Here’s one of the ones I’m really loving from our shoot 😬