Engagement Pictures

NDS11JAF

Once you get engaged when do you get engagment pictures done?  What is the purpose of them?

thejucheidea

We're thinking about doing an engagement session for both save the dates and to give to our parents and grandparents as just nice pictures of us (as my fiancé purposefully ruins every picture at family events with silly faces).

Kristin789

We got ours done pretty quickly after getting engaged.  One purpose is for your parents to have a picture of the TWO of you as a COUPLE, another purpose is to have a nice photo of the TWO of you as a COUPLE to put on his desk at work and your desk at work, another purpose is to use one of them as your STD, etc.

Avion22

We did engagement photos right away because I was about to move away from the photographer that we wanted to do them. We did them for these reasons: 1. It's nice to have professional pics of us. Until then, the only photos we had of us as a couple were "self-portraits" with H holding the camera. 2. We wanted to use them for save-the-dates 3. We wanted to use a specific photographer, the wife of a guy I used to work with. Having her do our e-pics helped us decide if we wanted to use her for the wedding (which we did!). Her wedding services are on the spendier side, and we wanted to make sure that we felt comfortable with her and really liked her work before spending that much on a wedding photographer. She ended up working out great and gave us a deal on our wedding package since we had done the engagement session with her.

Jen4948

They can be used with engagement announcements, such as newspaper announcements, bulletins in houses of worship, etc.

They can also be used with wedding announcements sent by the couple or parents to relatives and friends who are not invited to the wedding (generally done when wedding is small).

Barbiiieee

We got engaged in June of this year, and we're getting married in November of next year. We're getting ours done in January. We might use them for our STDs, and we will probably send out a few framed ones to our close family. We also like having pictures of ourselves. We are one of those really vain couples who literally have like 40,000 pictures of the two of us in our house. 

itzMS

DH & I actually had two sets of engagement pictures done.

One set about a month after we got engaged with a lower-budget independent photographer. The pictures definitely captured the "newly engaged" joy. We used these for save-the-dates.

The second set was about 2 months before the wedding. The wedding photographer included them as a part of our package. It was a great opportunity to get comfortable with the photographer. It helped her learn our "angles" and how to work with us.

Calypso1977

they are not required.  we did not do them.

tehy are typically used for newspaper announcements and some use them for STD's.

maddynamite

We got engaged in June, and had them done in August.

My fiance and I wanted them because we wanted professional pictures of us, and both sets of parents wanted pictures of their adult children that weren't strictly "wedding".

ftrmrsw

We got engaged in March, had our done in August.

We wanted them for Save the Dates and a Photo guestbook, although we've opted instead for a Photo Mounted Canvas instead of a guestbook. But we'll be using one of our photos for that.

Other than that, we ended up making a photobook with the photos. Its just nice to have "normal" photos of the two of you. As much as wedding photos are going to be nice, casual photos are great!

TurtlesAllTheWayDown

We did not do them.

I know some people make a guest book out of them for the wedding and/or use them for Save-The-Dates.

BostonGIrl4732

We had ours done in October (we were engaged in May).  We don't have many nice pictures of the two of us so when it was offered in our photography package, we jumped on it.  We're using ours for Save the Dates and a photo guestbook.

I don't like having my picture taken because I rarely like the result.  I felt so comfortable with our photographer and I know after seeing our engagement photos that I don't need to be stressed out about them.  FI decided he didn't like how his hair looked in our engagement photos so he's growing it out before the wedding.  So they worked out really well for us.

s-aries8990

In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/wedding-boards_customs-traditions_engagement-pictures-2?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Wedding%20BoardsForum:36Discussion:7d72a10d-c933-4f70-97e9-7afaef6bc14cPost:d15273e1-8736-41c2-924d-788b01955391">Re: Engagement Pictures</a>:
[QUOTE]I think i will get ours as soon as possible when i get engaged!I will post them on the internet,and share our happiness with everyone!
Posted by Catherine&88[/QUOTE]

Well, just be careful... people will get all up in your business and may push for invites. Posting a few is nice, but gushing about it will lead to trouble.

erinlin25

we got engaged in August; did pics in November and used some for our Save The Dates; and plan on using some framed pics for christmas.  We will then make our guest book out of them.  All of the above can be done with regular pics of course, but it was just a fun thing to do

heroeswearbrown

We got engaged in August and did ours in like November I think. We used them for our STDs, We gave some to our parents and grandparents for christmas last year and we're using them for our guest book. We made a calendar with them that people will sign their name on their birthday.

They're not necessary, but I liked having some nicer pictures of the two of us. We used a different photographer than the one who will be shooting our wedding. Our wedding photographer included an engagement session in our package, but I just switched it to a bridal portrait session instead. easy-peasy.

lovesclimbing

They aren't required.  We did ours about 2.5 months before the wedding.  We did them because

1 -  we wanted a nice picture to accompany our invitations

2 - we wanted some nice pictures of the two of us

3 - my cousin, who is a really good photographer and does some paid portraiture work, offered to do them for free to get more practice.  (And they turned out so good, we hired her to do the wedding itself!)

MRSreadcomicbooks

According to my sister (I am so glad she's here to tell me these things), they're good for save-the-dates, invitations, thank you cards...and a million other things. I wasn't sure I wanted them, and she convinced me. If it's out of your budget, don't do it...or find a good deal - a new photographer, a coupon, or just a friend who's talented with a camera. They're not a necessity, but they ARE definitely useful.

LizzyRB

A lot of people use them for STDs, but we did not.

We got them mainly to remember this point in our lives. How happy we are to be engaged. Also I liked that we got to work with and know our photographer before the big day.

alenglish

I am a huge stickler that weddings and what you do are up to you. We got engaged last May and have a det set for this October. With so long in between, we decided to take pictures to send out with our STDs. The intention was to send them out before Thanksgiving but they are still on my desk. I have been collecting addresses and was afraid to send them out when I should have been sending Christmas cards (which I didn't get a chance to do this year). At this point, they are almost ready to ship and frankly I would suggest doing them. You can save the addresses for sending the invitations and avoid the headache of missing addresses close to the wedding. Also, it can give you a better idea out the gate who won't be able to attend and you can hold off on the invitation.

artikaur

We got our engagement photos done because we want to use them for our save the dates. We got ours done a few months after we got engaged.

rodigsorange

Our friends had their engagement photos done as way of telling everyone they were engaged.

Mind you, they did everything wrong. She wore no makeup, had about a foot of weedy split ended hair, had an unflattering terrycloth dress on, he wore jorts, it was take at an anime convention-in-progress hotel front lawn with a point and shoot camera. Ugh. 

We were trying to be happy for them, but it was impossible not to grimace when looking at them.