Styling Your Engagement Session

Why It Matters and How You Can Style Simply and Intentionally

What if I told you that styling your engagement session is more than your clothing choice? Or more than your location?

And what if I told you that styling is one of the most important parts of designing an engagement session that truly tells a story and feels personal and intentional?

Keep reading for more of my thoughts on styling.

 

What is Styling and Why Does It Matter?

Thereafter’s Approach to Style

I have a unique perspective on styling. For me, styling is much more than clothing and accessories. Styling embodies a way of life, a mindset. 

Styling is synonymous with how you show up and inhabit yourself and your surroundings. It not only influences how you are perceived but also how you perceive yourself. And the beauty in this is that it can change. From year-to-year and even day to day, your style can shift as your life does. 

And it goes even deeper. How you desire to show up in the world and for yourself is directly connected to style. Your style shows where you long to go and who you are working towards becoming. 

It’s more than being aesthetically pleasing or using a catchphrase to describe how you dress or what you are drawn to. It’s a philosophy and a methodology of showing up as your best self. 

In my photographic approach, I strive to capture all of this in your engagement session to really showcase the unique aspects of you and your relationship.

 

Why Is Styling Important for an Engagement Session

All of this to say, style is important. Styling is a communication method to show who you are and what you stand for. Styling is a foundation for what you want to say about the story of your relationship.

You want the styling of your engagement session to feel authentic and harmonious with the people you are, the people you hope to become, and the journey that brought you to this place. 

 

 

How Styling For Your Engagement Session Can Be Simplified

So all of this is great, but how can you concretely and intentionally style your engagement session in a way that is meaningful, understandable, and simple?  

Styling is made up of smaller components; it is not necessarily just one thing. 

In regards specifically to engagement sessions, styling can be broken down into smaller, more actionable chunks. 

For example, think of your favorite film. Multiple things are happening all at the same time, which lends to how the film is perceived. The color of the film, the editing, the music, the cast, etc. Every decision impacts how you experience the film. 

It’s not so different with photography.

Here are some of the different elements that go into styling your engagement session in a way that embodies your true self. 

Location

Think of location as more than a scenic or beautiful place.

Instead, start with how you want your engagement session to make you feel. And from that feeling, we can move forward into a concrete location that will help encourage that feeling to be translated onto the image. 

Do you want to feel free and expansive on a bluff at sunset with your partner? 

Or maybe you want to feel cool and edgy, like Bonnie and Clyde in a gritty cityscape; you two against the world. 

How we want to feel is so in tune with our ideal vision of ourselves in the world and my goal with photography is to embody that vision. And the location is the first step in creating that vision.

Wardrobe 

Another facet of styling your engagement session is to look at your clothing choices. And, again, it goes beyond the surface of what is considered stylish or aesthetically pleasing.

How do you want your wardrobe to make you feel? Do you want to feel regal, in control, and confident? Or maybe you want to feel relaxed and comfortable, and really focus on the feeling of being romantic with your partner. 

The clothes you wear influence how you feel and in turn influence how you act. It’s more than the color scheme, or skinny jeans vs mom jeans. Looking past the obvious when it comes to how you want to wear your clothes will encourage you to get creative, pinpoint your most influential looks, and really dial in the wardrobe that you want to look back on with pride. 

I’m not saying color, texture, and the fit of clothing don’t matter; I’m saying look deeper into the motivations behind your choices and find something meaningful and specific; something that inspires you. 

Art Direction

You may correlate art direction with editorials or even film productions, but art direction is just as fundamental to your engagement session.

Art direction determines which artistic elements to use and how to best represent the couple’s photography vision. 

Your photographer should second as your art director.  And based on the conversations with you and your partner, your art director/photographer will decide which elements will best achieve that vision.  

For example, if you say you don’t want photographs that look stiff or posed then your photographer should be able to determine which poses to utilize or how to facilitate candid moments.  Or if you want photographs that look and feel editorial, then your photographer will be able to break down your desires into the elements that make photographs feel editorial.

 

 

Your Photographer

The photographer you hire may be the most important element in styling your engagement session. Your photographer and their ability to draw out specific details from your story will allow those details to translate into your photographs. A photographer who understands and relates to your vision is an invaluable component.

Don’t base your decision on a couple you see in their portfolio that you want to emulate or because you like the colors of their photographs. 

Instead, look at the mood of the photographs, the composition, the movement, and the poses. Think about how the photographs you are looking at make you feel.

Talk to your photographer before hiring them and learn about their approach and how they will photograph you in a way that’s SPECIFIC TO YOU. At the end of the day, all of the aesthetic elements of the photographs could be perfect (the color, the time of day, etc.), but if you don’t love the way you look in the photographs or they feel forced and inauthentic, it simply won’t matter.

Your personality is also highly influential. At the end of the day, you are a living and breathing human being with specific traits and quirks that make you who you are.

One of the biggest mistakes I see people make with their engagement photography is to think of themselves as a stand in’s for a photographer’s aesthetic. 

This is why, as you are looking for a photographer, you must choose an ARTIST and not just a photographer.  You must choose someone who KNOWS that YOU are ultimately what makes the photographs special, not the other way around. 

 

Reach out today for an enlightening conversation about how you can create the engagement session you’ve been dreaming of through an intentional and aligned photographic approach.