Make it meaningful: Customizing your engagement photos!

In the rush of wedding planning, take a deep breath and slow down. Remember what is important to you as a couple and that your wedding day and marriage is about the two of you. Think about how you want to honor your relationship, especially in this period leading up to your wedding. An engagement photo session is one way to capture this moment in time and an experience just for you two. My studio offers a refuge from the chaos of planning, an opportunity to get pampered and glammed up (yes, even the men) and time to focus on yourselves for a few hours. Hello, date night - I can even bring the beer and champagne! 

I love the chance to create romantic vibes and be around love. I take the time to meet with couples, like you, to get to know each of you while learning about the relationship, how you want to use the photos and what you want the photos to communicate. What feeling do you want when looking at them? Where do you want to hang them in the home you two are building together? 

The benefit of a studio engagement session is my blank walls are your canvas to paint. You want Vanity Fair and red carpet worthy style? Keely, my stylist, will find you all sparkly dresses and suits worthy of Don Draper’s swagger. Miranda or Sydney will give you bouncy hair and a red lip. I will turn on the fans and put you in poses straight off an Oscars issue. You want sexy, smoking hot romance? Keely will make sure we see some legs and shoulders! You want a champagne-popping, confetti-tossing dance party? We’ll grab the bubbly and worry about clean-up later. We’re here for all of it.  

Customized to your photo shoot fantasy, my team and I set up the studio to emanate the vibe in your head. I personally select backgrounds, lighting and props to set the tone ranging from light and airy to dark and moody. We will plan out poses to test out. You won’t believe the ones that get you out of your comfort zone and make you feel like a model. 

Whether it’s romance or punk, the clothes will set the tone and play a crucial role in expressing your relationship. Keely will set up time with you prior to the shoot to pick looks. She can work with any budget to help you purchase new outfits, rent from sites like Rent-the-Runway or virtually shop in your closet with you. Give her a color palette and Pinterest board and she’ll give you a hip hugging dress that makes you feel like a star.

Ahead of the shoot, I send along tips for prepping to be photographed which ranges from shaving to getting a manicure. However, knowing hair and makeup is a stress point for getting ready for a shoot, all my shoots come with a hair and make up artist who dolls both of you up, gets you in the photo shoot mood and boosts up your confidence. 

In case you’re having a hard time choosing just one mood, I like to have two to three looks during the session for variety and encourage couples to think through all the things that make them them. We can go from casual to glam in an instant. We can include props like skis or go outside and pose with the car that takes you on your favorite adventures together. I also make sure to get individual shots of each of you during the shoot that can be used in diptychs, triptychs or individually because at the end of the day we need to hold on to ourselves as we grow as a couple.

When you do a studio session for your engagement photos you have a room of white walls to showcase the magic combo that makes your relationship unique - the two of you. It’s a day and a slice of time pre-marriage with no distractions. I want to help you take the time to capture it and give you photos that you can look back on in 20, 30, 60 years and go “damn, we look goooooood!” It gives you the opportunity to make images that you won’t see anywhere else. And where else will you have a style team hooting and hollering to be a part of your love story?

Caption/Testimonial: “When we met about our engagement session with Steph, I told her that I wanted Vanity Fair and she made my dreams come true! The images absolutely uncovered our inner-glam after a year of leggings and gym shorts. Getting dressed up and in front of the camera just the two of us was an opportunity that we don’t often get and we embraced every moment - including wrapping up the day with a date night. This one of us on our JEEP pretty much sums it all up. It is like Annie Leibovitz was shooting the movie poster for Top Gun.” - Emily