Are you struggling with what to wear for your engagement session?

You have a date on the calendar for your engagement shoot (yay!!). We have planned a session to reflect who you are as a couple, in a meaningful location to you both.  This is about the time I get flooded with questions asking… what do we wear?! I thought I would offer a few tips to help you think about your outfit selection for your session!

Tips for what to wear for engagement photos:

• Dress like yourself!  I can’t stress this enough. Do you love how hats look in photos, but you have never worn one a day in your life?  Don’t choose your engagement session to try it out… make sure you feel comfortable to feel your best.
• Consider your location (especially for footwear).  If your engagement session is going to be at the beach or your family cottage, would you normally wear nice shoes in these locations?  Don’t be afraid to ditch the shoes altogether and go barefoot!
• Try not to match, but rather coordinate! Colour wheels can be a great point of reference. You can look at analogous colours (side by side on the colour wheel), monochromatic colours (i.e. variations of the same colour), or complementary colours (opposite colours on the colour wheel).
• Avoid mixing heavy patterns.
• Outfits that move well, photograph well. There is nothing worse than wearing something that feels too snug, leaving you tugging at it the entire time you are wearing it.

Below is a great example of coordinating with a pattern: I love how Abbey & Bryan coordinated! Abbey got her dress first, so Bryan was able to pull some complementary colours form her dress to coordinate, rather than match. Notice how the blue in her dress isn’t identical to the blue in his shorts?  It still looks beautiful and complimentary! They knew we would be at the beach, so the soft blues look so nice with the sand.

Brandon and Val considered their location.  They didn’t get too dressed up for our beachy/dog park session with their sweet pup, but they were comfortable and very much looked like themselves!    Kate & Colin started their session at home.  They were lounging on their deck, sipping on a really nice bottle of champagne and ordered in a beautiful dinner. They got dressed up for date night at home, and it worked beautifully with the cityscape background!  Whitney & Mike wanted a fall session. We were going to spend the bulk of their session out in nature, so they pulled some deep colours that looked stunning with their fall backdrop.  The colours are bold without over doing it, and staying true to their personal style.

Need more inspiration?  Feel free to check out some more sessions here, here and here.

I hope you have found these suggestions helpful while thinking about what to wear for your engagement session!