Planning Guides: Your pre-wedding engagment shoot

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Pre-wedding photo shoots, what's all that about then?


You may already know that we include a pre-wedding engagement shoot with all our wedding coverage packages. Not only are they a big free bonus to you guys, but they are advantageous to us as photographers too.

As it's free you don't have to take advantage of your pre-shoot, but we strongly recommend you find the time in your schedule to do so. As you can imagine, most weekends we're booked up with photographing weddings, or trying to take advantage of the very rare weekend off to visit our family and friends. It means that for the most part pre-shoots are booked in for a weekday. There are advantages of weekday photos shoots which we'll explain later. This big post is to help you understand what they are all about and what to expect.


Stranger danger!


Your pre-wedding engagement shoot is the best chance for us to get to know each other better before your wedding day. We'll most likely be with you for a very long time on your day, so all of us being more familiar with each other just makes that time together even more enjoyable. Plus we won't feel like strangers when we turn up at the start of your day during your preparations, it will feel like another mate has just arrived. We work hard to let couples know the type of photographers and individuals we are, as this in turn helps couples decide that not only are we the right photographers for them, but we're also people that they'd like to hang out with on their wedding day.


OMG but we hate being in front of a camera!


If the above thought has crossed your mind whilst contemplating a pre-wedding photoshoot, then you've just realised one of the strongest cases for having one in the first place. We're pretty confident that 90% is an accurate proportion for the amount of our couples who say that they aren’t big fans of having their photos taken. The opportunity to try our different things, and for you to become accustomed to being in front of the camera with less time constraints, means that after the shoot you'll get to see photos of yourself before your wedding day. It's one of the main advantages of the shoots. You get to check out what you think works well for you, and what you may not fit you as much personally. You get to go into your wedding day with the confidence of knowing what works best for you.

Will it be weird?


We won't lie to you, the first five or ten minutes might be, but we don't try and avoid that fact, we acknowledge it and leave room for it. We have lost count of the amount of pre-wedding shoots we've now captured over the years, but in ALL of those photo shoots EVERY couple has felt more conformable and less weird by the end of it. So even if you do feel awkward for the first few minuets, then that means that you're getting that feeling out the way before your wedding day. Just to clarify, the weirdness isn't caused by us asking you to do anything specific for a photo, it's just that initial experience of being photographed, which for many of us can feel a little exposing, but PHIL WILL BE THERE TO HELP YOU!


Are we going to have to touch each other?


Let's dispel some preconceptions you may have. We won't ask you to do/try anything you wouldn't generally in life. Any tips for ways of standing together we may suggest, you'll have done together before without even thinking about it. Couple's are very often relieved with how underwhelming suggestions may be. Our style of photography is relaxed, so we avoid anything really posed, we want your images to look like you're just out for the day together and stopped for a couple of photos.

We won't ask you to kiss or do anything overly intimate, that's your choice if you'd like to or not. To put you at ease we could tell you that by this point in our career we've seen tonnes of couples touch each other, but that probably just sounds a little weird. These shoots are different to wedding shoots in that you get to focus on yourselves more, rather than the excitement and distractions of a wedding day going on all around you. Don’t worry if that sounds a little full-on, as Phil is there to talk you through everything, offer advice and coaching as needed, and some distracting in the form of fun and humour.


Casual, relaxed photos of just the two of you


We tend to feel a little spoilt on a pre-wedding engagement shoot, as most of the time we’re not in a rush. It's usually a stroll somewhere pleasant occasionally stopping for a photo. As you can probably tell from the little slideshow compilation below, the relaxed pace lets you warm up slowly, and by the end of almost every shoot couples have forgotten the camera is there as they’re more distracted by having fun with each other, and us.


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So now you know why it's a great idea to have a pre-wedding shoot, let's get down to a little of what you can expect.

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What will we get up to during the shoot?


We don’t just jump straight into taking photos. On the average pre-wedding engagement shoot we’ll find somewhere to sit and chat for a while first. We run through the plans for your day, and discuss how we will best capture everything for you. It's also your opportunity to let us know anything specific you think would be helpful, and ask any remaining questions you may have.

Once we’ve got to know each other a little better, then it’s time for me to get the camera out! The location you’ve chosen for your shoot will dictate slightly as to how we go about things.

For the most part we’ll start strolling around, looking out for interesting backdrops for your photos. We'll help you to work out where to stand, and we can try various different ways of how you interact together to start to get an idea of what works well.

The photos will always look better with some form of physical interaction; holding hands, having a cuddle, leaning on each other, whatever you're comfortable with. We’ll work out what suits you. As we progress we might try a few different creative ideas.

That pretty much sums up a pre-wedding engagement shoot. At its simplest, we go for a stroll and take some photos!


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Where should we go for our shoot?


As a pre-shoot with us is free; we don't charge any extra on top of your coverage package for them, whatever the location it usually needs to be within the Wolverhampton, Dudley, or Birmingham City Centre area to make it as easy as possible to fit into our schedule. Every couple we've photographed during a pre-shoot as been very glad of the experience, so trust us; they are definitely worth traveling for if you need to.

Locations tend to come down to two main deciding factors: do you like the idea of a green and leafy backdrop, or vibrant urban one?

If you're unsure we have plenty of spots we can recommend. If you decide on a rural woodland shoot, it’s a great idea to opt for an interesting location with varying features and backdrop option. Somewhere that can incorporate open areas, as well as woods, and possible lakes. If you'd like an urban backdrop then we can highly recommend meeting up at The Custard Factory in Birmingham and having a still around Digbeth to make use of the industrial locations and amazing street art.

It's also very useful if our meeting spot has somewhere to sit for a while, as this gives us somewhere to chat through your plans before getting the camera out.

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When is the best time to book our shoot for?


Due to the busy nature of the wedding season, pre-wedding engagement shoots are best booked in for late autumn, winter or early springtime. We can squeeze a pre-wedding meet up and shoot into the summer, but we'll have less of a selection of dates for you. We want to ensure we have plenty of lovely natural light, so taking sunset times in to consideration is important. As we've mentioned we're most often photographing weddings on weekends, so the majority of our availability is during the week. This is often better as venues and locations are quieter during the week. So your wedding venue is more likely to be able to accommodate us if you'd like to meet there, and locations won't be as busy making the shoot easier.

There's no rules as to how far in advance of your wedding day you should have your pre-shoot, it's up to you. It's probably best to avoid the last six weeks before the big day, as you'll probably be busy and may struggle to fit it in. Sometime between six to three months before can work well.

We have a special page on our website with a pre-shoot availability calendar page. We'll send you the link once the booking fee is paid. The majority of dates of weekdays, we are able to offer a handful of weekends too, these tend to get booked up very quickly. Phil usually takes the lead on pre-shoots, if you'd like Toby to join us too then our online calendar shows which dates we are both available to be there for your pre-wedding shoot.

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What should we wear?


We tend to suggest to wear something comfortable, that you feel flatters you. When we're wearing clothes that we feel flatter us, it can give us a little confidence boost. There's no specific rules, so go with what suits you, and is typical of you as a couple. If you'd like to help a photographer out a little then simply avoid wearing too much white as that can look a little bright when compared to the rest of the image.

Try to leave bags at home so you don’t have to carry anything around. It’s sometimes a good idea to avoid busily patterned clothing, but there’s no hard and fast rule, so don't worry too much. If you want to wear that eye watering Hawaiian shirt then by all means do so. To stand out on varying backdrops bold colours can actually work well, but don’t worry if that’s not really your thing. If it’s chilly, remember a coat. Coats can work well as a mini costume change option too. Sensible outdoor footwear is obviously also ideal!

We're going to draw the line at advising you on underwear, that's a completely different type of photo shoot 😜

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Can we bring our dog?


Some past couples have brought their pet pooch along to keep them company. If you dog is fine off the lead with good recall then by all means feel free to have them join us. I've learnt from past experience that if you normally have to keep your dog on a lead and keep an eye on them then it's best not to include them as it get's in the way of doing what we need to do. As we usually sit down for 30 minutes or so when we first meet up bear in mind you're dog will need to be content with us doing that, if they might struggle and want to head straight off for the walk then again it's probably best to leave them at home or get someone to look after them for a couple of hours.

More of our pre-wedding engagement shoots can be found on our site here, and you can see a mini portfolio of pre-shoots here.

Couple hugging during their pre-wedding engagement shoot with The Dignums at Madeley Court Hotel
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If you've not booked us for your wedding just yet and the idea of a free pre-wedding engagement shoot has clinched the deal, get in touch to check we're available for your day.

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