How To Style Your Perfect Engagement Photos + Ways You Can Use Them

December 15, 2017

Happy Friday everyone! I am going to just give my apologies in advance, because there are going to be a lot of photos in this post! Nate and I recently shot our engagement photos, and I couldn’t be more in love with how they turned out! As the holidays are so often a popular time to get engaged, I thought this post might be helpful for all those newly engaged couples out there who may be looking to commemorate their engagement with gorgeous photos they can cherish forever!

Typically, when you book your photographer for your wedding, they will shoot an engagement photo session with you as part of your package. While you don’t have to have engagement photos, they are wonderful to have. You can use them in so many different ways, which I will get to in a bit. Also, make sure you get to the end of this post, because I have an amazing contest with WeddingWire to tell you about! But first, let’s talk inspiration.

In case you can’t tell the inspiration behind our engagement photos, it is somewhat inspired by the film La La Land. There are several reasons behind this. First of all, in case you haven’t been following along on our whole journey, Nate proposed to me last winter up at a lookout point off of Mulholland drive in the Hollywood hills. The setting was definitely very La La Land-esque. This, plus the fact that we both really loved that movie and it is sort of a love letter to Los Angeles, seemed like it was the perfect thing to inspire the aesthetic for our engagement session. We met and fell in love in this city, so I loved the idea of shooting our photos in such iconic LA landmarks such as the Griffith Observatory and various spots in downtown Los Angeles.

I also love how the classic feel of the film, and believe it sort of harkens back to old Hollywood and classic films, which we both love. I wanted to capture that in these photos and I think we did! Some of these look straight off of a movie poster (in my opinion!) and I know we are going to cherish these photos forever.

When brainstorming how you want to shoot your photos, get creative! Think of places or activities that have meaning to both of you and center your photos around this theme. For instance, another idea I had while thinking of what to do was to shoot our engagement photos at an outdoor ice rink because we both love skating and actually started dating by going skating together once a week. This idea did not quite pan out as it is hard to find an outdoor rink here in LA, if you know what I mean! Think outside the box and really capture your personality and story as a couple in these photos and they will be absolutely incredible.When it comes to wardrobe, I think two different outfits make for great variety in your photos. More that that might be too much; you don’t want to be constantly searching for a place to change, especially if your shoot happens to be outside somewhere! I love a dressy look and a more casual look to give a greater contrast between looks in your shoot. For our Grifith Observator photos, we somewhat emulated our La La Land theme, and when we got to downtown Los Angeles, we went with more casual looks, much like what we might wear if we were out on a date. For my dresses, I rented from Rent the Runway, which is an amazing option to use because you can wear gorgeous designer gowns that you might not be able to wear otherwise. I absolutely loved these two dresses I chose! If you’ve never used Rent the Runway before, you’ve got to try it out. If you want to try it out and get $30 off your first order, use code FRIEND306DE50 at checkout!

What should you do with your engagement photos once you have them? There are so many ways you can make use of them! One very popular way is to use them for your save the date’s, but here’s a list of other ideas to get your creative juices flowing:

Create a Photo book. I plan on doing something like this and having it just be photos in the book and use this as our guest book at our wedding. I’ve seen friends do this before, and I think it makes a much more personalized and special memento from your wedding.
Create a wedding website
Frame them!
Submit your photos for publication. Some websites to consider: Green Wedding Shoes, Aisle Perfect, Style Me Pretty, WeddingWire
Use them to personalize your table numbers at your reception

Speaking of WeddingWire, they are running an amazing contest from now until February. Each month they are giving away incredible prizes, and the grand prize is $10,000. One way you can use your engagement photos is to share them on social media, (which duh how could you not) and use the hashtag #justsaidyes. Here’s what they are giving away each month:

Campaign dates: December 1, 2017 – February 28, 2018
Grand Prize: $10,000 toward your wedding vendors
December Giveaway: Wedding Dress from Allure Bridals
January Giveaway: Two sets of honeymoon luggage from Away
February Giveaway: $2500 from Blue Nile

To learn all the details, click here!

Now this is the part when I just put a ton of our photos from our shoot because I’m just obsessed with them and its so hard to narrow down our favorites! I hope they bring you some inspiration for your own engagement photos!