A question that I am asked quite frequently is, “When should we have our engagement pictures done?” This is kind of a tough question to answer across the board because what if you got engaged today and you are getting married in 3 months? Or what if you got engaged today and don’t plan to get married for a couple years? For the sake of this example, I’ll pretend that if you got engaged today, that you are getting married in 1.5 years. This seems to be a pretty typical timeline with a lot of couples I work with. With that said, my suggestion would be to do the engagement shoot at least six months before the wedding. Preferably, I’d rather do the shoot a year in advance.
Why do I say 6-12 months before? For a couple of reasons:
- Lets say you plan to do your engagement shoot in August for your October wedding? On the schedule date, it rains so we must reschedule, but as most photographers are booked on the weekends and are in full swing for senior photography at this time, the next available date isn’t till mid-September, and now you are already just a month before your wedding. What if it rains that day? What if you are sick that day? There are a lot of what ifs that I wouldn’t want to risk a month before the wedding.
- Another reason for planning engagement pictures sooner is for the albums. Lets say you are wanting a unique guestbook signature album. The typical lead time for my albums are about 3-5 weeks, so to allow for the proper time frame, and to allow you to have the album on hand and ready we do need plenty of time before hand.
- Lastly, I recommend planning 6-12 months (at least) in advance for the simple fact of enjoying your pictures and album for a while before you receive your wedding pictures and album.
There are plenty more reasons to list, but by bringing up just a few, hopefully this will help you when planning a wedding to kind of understand a time frame that you can expect to look at. For me personally, I want to provide you with amazing pictures that you can’t wait to show off and enjoy for some time before the wedding. And of course, if you have any questions, or maybe if you have a different situation for planning your wedding, shoot me an email and I can help guide you in a direction that will work for your situation.
Happy Tuesday everyone!