Engagement photos??

PigTeachingEng

Just wondering the engagement photos are a necessary part of the process or if it can be cut out to save $??

AdeleDazeem

You certainly don't need engagement photos.  I actually don't understand them.

However, once you pick your wedding photographer and package, many times engagement photos are included in the package so the "photographer can get to know you and you can get to know their work."

[Deleted User]

Nope. Absolutely not necessary. A good way to save some $$$. We did not do them.

tidetravel

In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/wedding-boards_etiquette_engagement-photos-1?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Wedding BoardsForum:9Discussion:8cfc9f0f-33a5-470d-abb8-f13190d44581Post:2f5ef802-cb11-4b24-abc2-01bc23f04b90">Engagement photos??</a>:
[QUOTE]Just wondering the engagement photos are a necessary part of the process or if it can be cut out to save $??
Posted by PigTeachingEng[/QUOTE]

Necessary:

bride
groom
officiant
witnesses

Not necessary:  everything else

As long as you make sure that you treat your guests well, there's A LOT that can be cut to save money.

klm03013

Yeah, ours was included in our package but we actually negotiated with the photographer to cut them out and ended up saving some money. We'd rather put the money towards the reception, which the guests will enjoy a lot more than some pictures of us.

IrishBrideND

not necessary. My parents really wanted one pic of us (we really didn't have any nice ones). We went to picture people ( i know, its lame) and paid about 30 buck total.

herecomesthebride1986

We did them, and I LOVE them... It was such a fun day, and you get to know your photographer in the process. Nothing worse than meeting your photographer (other than signing contracts etc..) and thinking she's a total witch on your wedding day...
I've seen it happen

rjtutter

Definitely not necessary, and can be cut to save money.

We did them and loved it only because we are not the most comfortable in front of the camera, and it was an opportunity to get comfortable with the camera and our photographer before our wedding day.

alka131

Our photographer included them with her package and I'm really happy we did them. We were able to work with her before the wedding to make sure we liked her, and we got some sweet artistic looking shots of us. It is not necessary per se, but nice if having professional non-wedding photos is important to you or you want to work with your photog before the day of the wedding. It's what is important to you!

Goldlie11

Engagement photos run at $300+ where I live.  We're skipping them.  $300 is the cost of my wedding ring.  A much better use of the money in my opinion.  

Beachy730

I don't get engagement pics.  We didn't do them and we never even considered doing them.  My favorite pics around our house other than the wedding pics are random ones of H and I from different events and things we've gone to that have memories and meaning to us when we look at them.  To me I think engagement photos would just be like oh look, that's the day a photographer followed us around all day. 

I also honestly don't understand the reasoning that it helps you open up in front of the camera.  I would think its awkward as hell to be taking all these random shots with just my FI, and constantly posing and what not.  And I would think that its actually more awkward than the wedding day.  At the wedding it's such a whirlwind that you don't even notice he's there half the time, and even the posed shots with different people are a blur. 

If you really want a nice picture of you and your FI for cheap then do what Irish said and go somewhere like Wal-Mart or JCPenney or something like that.  You can get a few poses for really cheap.

Summer2011Bride

We did and loved them but we actually didn't use our wedding photog b/c we hadn't even booked him yet, and we got them taken in a different city than our wedding and didn't want to pay for traveling costs.

We found a great husband and wife team whose sitting fee was only $50 for an hour on location (most others were over $200). We probably wouldn't have done it had it been that expensive. We're using them on STD's, Christmas cards, we're putting two in signable frames in lieu of a guest book at the reception, and we're getting some 5x7's to put in black frames on different tables at our reception (dessert table, gift table, etc.).

We wanted them b/c we didn't have any pro pics of us ever and we really wanted them done outside and not in a photo studio. But like everyone else had said, it's def. not necessary. I just gave you some reasons people do like to use them, but if you don't want any of those things or already have nice pics of you guys, then there's no need to spend the money.

PsyDet 2155

We're having e-pics done because it's included "free" in our photography package.  They definitely aren't necessary.

AllAboutTheBenjamin

Yeah ditto everyone else - totally not necessary. 

Our photographer offered engagement photos, but as an add on to what we were already paying for.  However, a close friend of mine who was a bridesmaid in our wedding does all our friends' engagement pictures for free.  She's not a professional photographer but she's as close to professional as you can get - and she did a great job. 

I like having some professional photos of us - we submitted one to our hometown paper with our engagement announcement, and we also had a picture table at our wedding.  Most of the pictures were of us over the years, but our photo mat (instead of a guest book) featured three of our engagement photos, and then we had another one of our engagement photos blown up into an 8x10 and framed next to it.  It looked nice.

But, again - not necessary.  If you want to save money and can't get them for free, it's not a big deal if you don't do them.