Do I Need an Engagement Session Before My Wedding?
No, you don’t need an engagement session before your wedding. Your wedding photos can still be beautiful without one.
But as a wedding photographer, I recommend engagement sessions to my couples whenever possible. And surprisingly, it’s not really because you need more photos.
The biggest benefit is getting comfortable with your photographer and figuring out what it actually feels like to be photographed together before your wedding day.
Because unless you secretly model on the weekends, you probably don’t spend your normal evenings walking through a garden, staring lovingly at your fiancé while someone follows you around with a camera.
That’s one of the reasons I love photographing engagement sessions in Knoxville and East Tennessee before the wedding day..
I recently photographed Emma and Mitchell’s engagement session at the Knoxville Botanical Garden, and it was a perfect example of what I love about these sessions. We had the most beautiful golden-hour light, plenty of time to explore, and absolutely no wedding-day timeline yelling at us from the background.
An Engagement Session Is Basically a Practice Run
This is probably the biggest reason I recommend engagement photos.
Your engagement session lets you experience how I photograph before your wedding.
When I photographed Emma and Mitchell at the Botanical Gardens, I wasn’t expecting them to arrive knowing exactly where to stand, where to look, or what to do with their hands.
The hands are always the first betrayal.
I guided them.
Sometimes that meant giving them a specific pose. Other times, I gave them something simple to do and let the moment happen naturally from there.
That’s generally how I photograph my couples. I want you to know that I’m there to help, but I also don’t want your entire gallery to look like I carefully arranged two very attractive mannequins.
I want movement. I want you interacting. I want the photos to actually feel like the two of you.
During your engagement session, we figure out that rhythm together.
It’s also a big part of how I approach wedding photography: plenty of guidance when you need it, without making the entire day feel like one long photoshoot.
“But We’re Really Awkward in Front of the Camera”
If I had a dollar for every couple who told me this, I could probably buy another lens.
Seriously, I hear it ALL the time.
And if this is you, an engagement session might actually be more helpful, not less.
You are not expected to arrive knowing how to pose.
I’ll guide you when you need it. We might start with something a little more directed, and then I’ll have you walk, move, talk to each other, or interact so we can get those more natural moments too.
Sometimes I’ll adjust your hands. Sometimes I’ll tell you where to look. Sometimes I’ll tell you to completely ignore me, which might be the easiest instruction I give you all evening.
You do not need to spend the week before your engagement session practicing poses in the bathroom mirror.
Please don’t.
Your job is basically to show up with your person.
I’ll handle the rest.
If you want to see more of what that actually looks like, you can check out some of my Knoxville engagement photography here.
You Get to Know Your Wedding Photographer Before the Wedding
This part is easy to overlook when you’re planning a wedding.
Your photographer is going to be around you for a LOT of your wedding day.
I’ll be there while you’re getting ready, during portraits, through family photos, at your ceremony, and probably somewhere nearby while someone is desperately searching for a missing boutonniere.
It’s nice when your wedding day isn’t the first time we’ve actually spent time together.
Emma and Mitchell are getting married in October, so their Botanical Gardens engagement session gave us the opportunity to work together before I photograph their wedding.
Now, when their wedding day arrives, we’re not starting from scratch.
They already know how I photograph and how I guide them, and I’ve already had the chance to see what feels natural for them as a couple.
That familiarity can make wedding portraits feel SO much easier.
That’s one of the reasons I include an engagement session with my wedding photography packages.
Your Wedding Portraits Usually Feel Easier
Wedding days move fast.
You would be amazed at how quickly “we have plenty of time!” turns into “okay, we have seven minutes before the reception entrance.”
Even with a great wedding timeline, your couple portraits might happen between family photos, your grand entrance, dinner, speeches, or the last few minutes of golden hour.
Your engagement session is different.
We have time.
We can walk around. We can try something. If it feels weird, we laugh and try something else. Nobody is waiting for us to cut a cake.
By the wedding, you’ve already done this once.
You don't have to spend the beginning of your wedding portraits figuring out how I work because you already know.
Instead, you can spend more of that time actually enjoying the fact that YOU JUST GOT MARRIED.
Which is kind of the whole point.
Engagement Photos Can Be an Actual Date
Please don’t turn your engagement session into another stressful item on your wedding checklist.
Make a date out of it.
Emma and Mitchell chose the Knoxville Botanical Garden, which gave us plenty of space to explore and absolutely gorgeous light as the sun started going down.
That’s exactly the kind of experience I want my couples to have.
Pick somewhere you actually want to spend an evening.
Go out for dinner afterward. Bring a picnic. Grab coffee beforehand. Walk around after we're finished.
You’re allowed to enjoy the location you picked instead of spending the entire day thinking, “THE PHOTOS ARE AT 6:30.”
Your engagement session can be part photoshoot, part date night.
And yes, you’re absolutely allowed to reward yourselves with tacos afterward.
I support this decision.
You’ll Have Professional Photos Before Your Wedding
Of course, there’s another pretty great benefit.
You actually get engagement photos.
You can use them for:
Save-the-dates
Wedding invitations
Your wedding website
Guest books
Prints for your home
Reception decorations
Social media announcements
Gifts for parents or grandparents
But you also don’t need an excuse to have them.
Your engagement is its own little season of your relationship.
Someday you’ll have hundreds of wedding photos, vacation photos, blurry phone pictures, screenshots you forgot why you saved, and approximately 4,000 photos of your future children or pets.
It’s pretty special to have photographs of just the two of you during the time when you were simply excited about getting married.
Where Should We Take Engagement Photos in Knoxville?
Knoxville has so many beautiful options for engagement photography, and the Knoxville Botanical Garden is definitely one of them.
Emma and Mitchell’s session is a great example of why I love photographing couples there.
There’s enough variety that we can move around and create different looks without spending half of your session getting back into the car, driving somewhere else, finding parking, getting back out of the car...
We came here for engagement photos, not a Knoxville transportation tour.
And when we get that beautiful golden-hour light, even better.
But your engagement session doesn’t have to be at the Botanical Gardens.
We can choose gardens, parks, open fields, downtown locations, mountain views, or somewhere that actually means something to the two of you.
I photograph engagement sessions throughout Knoxville, Maryville, and East Tennessee, and I’m always happy to help my couples choose a location based on the season, lighting, outfits, and overall look they want.
What If We Really Don’t Want an Engagement Session?
Then don’t force yourself to have one.
I recommend engagement sessions, but I don’t believe you need to check every traditional wedding box just because Pinterest has decided you do.
If an engagement session genuinely isn't important to you, that's okay.
We can still create beautiful wedding photos.
I’ll guide you through your wedding portraits whether we’ve had an engagement session together or not.
You might just need a little more time at the beginning to get used to being photographed and learn how I direct you.
And I promise I will not arrive at your wedding disappointed that you didn't spend an evening frolicking through a field with me six months earlier.
We're good.
So, Do You Need an Engagement Session Before Your Wedding?
Need one? No.
Would I recommend one? Absolutely.
Not because you need another collection of pretty photos, but because the experience can make your wedding photography feel so much more familiar.
You get to practice being photographed together without wedding-day pressure.
I get to learn how you interact.
You get to learn how I work.
And we all figure out what to do with the hands.
Emma and Mitchell’s Botanical Gardens session was exactly that: a beautiful evening, gorgeous golden-hour photos, and a chance for us to work together before I photograph their October wedding.
Now when their wedding day gets here, we’ve already done this once.
If you’re planning a wedding in Knoxville, Maryville, the Smoky Mountains, or anywhere around East Tennessee and you’re looking for a Knoxville and East Tennessee wedding photographer, I’d love to hear what you’re planning.
Engagement sessions are complimentary when you book your wedding photography with me, so we’ll have our own little practice run before your wedding day.
And yes, I’ll tell you what to do with your hands.
