If you're newly engaged and wondering whether you should have an engagement session, I have some thoughts! 👀🤓 As an upstate New York engagement photographer, I might be a little biased, but I genuinely think there's something sooo special AND important about taking time to celebrate this season of your relationship before the wedding day arrives! And no, it's not just because you'll have cute photos to post on Instagram (although that is a very good perk! 😏).
It's about getting to know each other as photographer and friend, feeling comfortable in front of the camera, treasuring this season of your fiancée relationship, and creating photos that tell more of your love story.
So let's talk about why I love engagement sessions so much, how and where you can use these photos, and ways we can make your session feel completely like you! 🫶🏼
Getting to Know Your Photographer Before the Big Day!
This might be my favorite reason to do an engagement session! 🥹🤍 As your Upstate NY wedding photographer, I’m going to be with you during SO many meaningful moments on your wedding day. From the getting-ready chaos with your favorite people to the happy tears during your ceremony, I want you to feel comfortable having me there through all of it! 🫶🏼
An engagement session gives us time to hang out, talk about your relationship, and get to know each other as better friends before the wedding day arrives! 🥰 You get to see how I work behind the camera, and I get to learn more about your personalities, your dynamic, and all the little things that make your relationship yours. 🤍
By the time your wedding rolls around, we're not just meeting for the first time and hoping everything clicks. We've already spent time together, and that makes a HUGE difference. When you feel comfortable with your photographer, it's easier to relax, be yourselves in front of the lens, and enjoy the experience vs. worrying about what you’ll look like in every single photo!!
FRIENDSHIP! That's what we're going for! 🤍🫶🏼
You Get to Practice Being in Front of the Camera!
If you're already thinking, "Wait, what am I supposed to do with my hands?!" then I got you!!! 🤭 Most couples aren't professional models, and you absolutely do not need to know how to pose before showing up to your engagement session. That's my job! 🙌🏼
Think of your engagement session as a little test run before the wedding. 🤍 You'll get a feel for my posing style, figure out what feels natural to you, and learn how to interact with each other while I'm snapping away behind the camera. And here's the thing: you don't have to spend the entire session looking at the camera and smiling!
I might ask you to walk together, whisper something to each other, pull your person in for a hug, or do something that gets you both laughing. 🥹💕 Some of my favorite images happen when couples forget about the camera and are just enjoying being together.
Then when your wedding day comes around, you'll already have an idea of what to expect during portraits! Less worrying about posing, and more enjoying the fact that YOU'RE GETTING MARRIED! 💍
Hello, Save-the-Dates and Wedding Websites!
Can we talk about how fun it is to have professional photos of the two of you before the wedding?! Engagement photos are perfect for so many things, including:
Your save-the-dates and wedding invitations
Your wedding website
Engagement announcements on Instagram
Guest books and reception displays
Prints for your home
Literally any excuse to post another photo with your favorite person on the gram! 👀🙌🏼
And if you're putting together a wedding website, having photos that show the two of you together makes it feel so much more personal! Instead of searching through your camera roll for a photo you both like, you'll have an entire gallery to choose from. Plus, you'll get to enjoy these photos LONG before your wedding gallery arrives! And who doesn't love having more photos with their favorite human?! 🫶🏼
You Get to Celebrate THIS Special, Fleeting Season of Your Life
Wedding planning can get BUSY. Between choosing vendors, figuring out timelines, making decisions, and keeping track of approximately a million little details, it's easy to get caught up in the planning and forget to actually enjoy being engaged.
An engagement session is a chance to slow down for a little bit. You get to dress up, spend intentional time together, explore somewhere fun for your photoshoot, and celebrate the fact that you're about to get MARRIED!
No wedding timeline to follow. No reception events to rush off to. Just the two of you—hanging out, flirting, and doing something fun—while I document it all. 🤍 Years from now, you'll thank yourself that you have photos that take you right back to this chapter of your relationship. 🫶🏼🥹
I think that's one of the sweetest things about photography. These images aren't just for your wedding website or your Instagram feed. They're little reminders of a season you'll never experience in quite the same way again. And THAT is worth a thousand words!
Hi, I’m Emilee!
If you’re looking for joyful, emotion-rich imagery, then I maaaay be your gal!
I’m an Upstate NY Wedding Photographer who specializes in a laid-back photography approach, and I’d love to help tell your love story!
Your Engagement Session Can Be Personal for YOUR Unique Love Story
This is where we can get creative! Your engagement photos don't have to look like everyone else's. In fact, I LOVE when couples choose locations that actually mean something to them. Did you meet in college? Let's go back to your alma mater campus! Do you live in Brooklyn and love spending your weekends exploring the neighborhood? Let's do pics there!! Does your family have a lakehouse where you've made your favorite memories together? HELLOOO, that sounds like heaven! 😭
Some of my favorite engagement sessions have been ones where we incorporate a place that's sentimental to the couple. Take Hannah and Milad's engagement session at Watkins Glen State Park, for example! Or Will and Megan's session in Central Park.
Different locations, different couples, different stories! Your session should reflect YOU—the places you love, the things you enjoy doing together, and the little details that make your relationship special. And if you have absolutely no idea where to start with choosing a location, don't worry! We can brainstorm together and come up with something that fits your love story. 🫶🏼
Engagement Session Inspo From a New York Engagement Photographer
Even in terms of outfits, engagement sessions can have totally unique looks, and I LOVE that! 🥹🤍 Some couples want a dressy, elevated-feeling session. Others want something chill and playful. Sometimes they even want both. There is truly no right or wrong way to do engagement photos, and the goal is to create images that feel like you—not to recreate somebody else's Pinterest board. (Yes, I said it. 🥲🫶🏼)
The Dressy, Romantic Vibe
If you love a more high-end, put-together look, this is your sign to pull out that dress you've been wanting an excuse to wear! ✨ Think: a beautiful, head-to-toe dress, a suit and tie, classic architecture, city streets, or a location with a little extra elegance.
You can see this kind of inspiration in Megan and Will's and Darshita and Kunj's engagement photos. The photos feel intentional and dressed up while still giving us room to capture genuine, candid moments! 📸
The Fun, Laid-Back Vibe
Prefer something more casual? We can totes do that, too! 🤭
Think cream and white linens, your favorite light-wash jeans, and a cute park, a walk around your neighborhood, or an afternoon somewhere outdoors. See Abby and Conner's and Kaitlyn and Colby's engagement photo sessions below for some inspo! 🤍
And if you want to bring a little personality into your session, DO IT! 🥰 Bring the coffees you always get together (peep Lyndsi and Max’s fun latte engagement photos), plan a picnic, or choose a spot where you love spending time. We can collaborate to make your session feel intentional without making it feel overly posed or like you're trying to be someone you're not!! 🫶🏼
Psst… in case you haven’t noticed, awkward photos aren’t really my vibe.
My goal is to get you feeling comfortable and yourself, so you can enjoy personality-driven imagery for years to come!
If you’re looking at this gallery, thinking, “YASSSSS!”, then we need to talk… like yesterday!
Best Of All, I Get to Learn More About YOU Before Your Wedding!
This is a final (major 👀) reason engagement sessions are so valuable to me as your New York engagement photographer! 🥹🤍 Every couple is different—some are playful and constantly touching/making each other laugh, whereas others are more reserved, less affectionate, or prefer a little extra guidance when it comes to posing. 🫶🏼
Getting to photograph you before the wedding helps me learn what makes you comfortability levels, how you naturally interact, and what prompts bring out your personalities. 📸✨ That experience carries over into your wedding day! Instead of starting from scratch, I have a better understanding of how to guide you through portraits and capture moments that feel genuine to your relationship.
My goal is never to make every couple look or interact exactly the same. I want your photos to reflect YOUR love story, your quirks and personalities, and the way you love each other! Having that extra time of engagement photos together helps me do exactly that! 🤍
But What If You’ve Already Had Proposal Photos Taken?!
First of all, how fun that you have those memories documented! BUT, if you're wondering whether proposal photos can effectively replace an engagement session, here's what I'd consider… 🤔
Proposal photography and engagement sessions serve two different purposes. A proposal session captures the excitement and surprise of the moment you get engaged. An engagement session gives us more time to work together, get comfortable in front of the camera, and create a gallery centered around your relationship.
And if your proposal photographer isn't the same person photographing your wedding, this is big! An engagement session is an especially great opportunity to build that connection with your wedding photographer!
So if you already have proposal photos you love, that's amazing. 🤩 We certainly don't need to recreate those moments. But what we can do is plan something completely different and use your engagement session to capture a deeper peek into your story!
What If You Only Want Save-the-Date Photos?
You can absolutely can hire someone for a quick session just to get your save-the-dates out the door! 💌 But if your wedding photographer (aka me 🤭) offers engagement sessions, there's something sooo valuable about having the same person photograph both seasons of your relationship—fiancée and fiancé vs. husband and wife! 🥹
You'll already have experience working together before your big day, and your engagement and wedding galleries can feel like two chapters of the same story. (Plus, you won't have to explain your posing preferences, get used to a new photographer, or start that relationship from scratch the day of your wedding!)
It's one less thing to figure out, and it's an opportunity to get even MORE comfortable in front of the camera before the big day arrives. 👏🏼
But Do You Really NEED Engagement Photos?
Here's where I'm going to be completely honest with you! No, you don't HAVE to book an engagement session to get gorgeous wedding photos. Every couple has different priorities, and I know wedding budgets can get tight. But here’s my personal hot take... Jon and I actually didn't have professional engagement photos taken, and to this day, I WISH we had booked a session with our wedding photographer!! 😭
I was constantly setting up a tripod and taking self-portraits of us, so we still have pictures from that season of our relationship. But looking back, I would have loved to have someone else document that season for us. It would’ve been so fun to get dressed up, spend time embracing engagement, and to have photos that weren't taken by me—setting up a tripod and running back and forth between the frame and the camera. LOL.
It's funny because, as a New York engagement photographer and Upstate NY wedding photographer, I know how meaningful photographs can be. And even with all the pictures I took myself, I still wish we had made time for a proper engagement session.
So if you're on the fence, that's my biggest piece of advice: don't think of engagement photos as just another thing you need done for your wedding. Think about how you'll feel looking back on them YEARS from now! You might not need them for your invitations. You might not even post every single photo. But having that season of your life documented? I don't think you'll regret it. 🥹🤍
SO LET'S PLAN YOUR ENGAGEMENT SESSION! 🥂
If you're engaged and planning your wedding, I would LOVE to help you plan an engagement session that feels like the two of you! Whether you're dreaming of a dressy session in the city, or a relaxed afternoon outdoors, we can collaborate to bring your vision to life.
As an Upstate New York wedding photographer, I love getting to know my couples and creating photographs that feel personal to them.
You don't need to know how to pose, have the perfect outfits picked out, or come to me with every detail figured out. That's what we're here to plan together! So grab your favorite person, start dreaming up some ideas, and let's make this happen, friend! 😌💍✨