If you’re newly engaged, this Monthly Tidbit is for you! The April Monthly Tidbit is going to teach you all about How to Pick Your Engagement Session Location. There’s a lot of things to consider when beginning to plan your engagement session: time of day, lighting, outfits, activities and the type of scenery you’re drawn to, just to name a few! When my clients and I begin to map out their engagement session, the FIRST thing we talk about is the location. The time of day, lighting, outfits and activities are all dependent on this portion of the planning! 

When we start to work through selecting your engagement session location, I would begin with asking you what type of scenery you two are most drawn to AND if you are interested in doing any sort of activity during your session (hiking, sharing a bottle of champagne, kayaking, making cookies, just to name a few). After we’ve honed-in on the type of scenery and activities you two are wanting for your engagement session, I would share a few location options for you two to choose between. Here’s an example: if you were to say that you two love to hike, are drawn to mountains and love the look of cacti, I would know to share a few locations with you that would include all three of those elements. If you tell me that you want a location that looks differently than what you see on a day to day basis, I would then share a few locations with you that have a DIFFERENT type of scenery (if you live in the Phoenix area, a few options I would give you would be places the sand dunes, a pine tree field or a red rock mountain).

Each location typically is best for either a sunrise or a sunset shoot, which I would specify when I would share with you the engagement session location options. Generally speaking, I would plan to being your shoot right at the beginning of sunrise for a morning session, or about 1 hour prior to sunset for an evening session. This ensures that we would have the BEST of lighting, creating soft sun flares and even exposure for gorgeous end-result images. I easily find out the sunrise and sunset times by searching the average sunrise or sunset time + your location + your engagement session date into google!

Once we’ve determined the type of scenery you’re looking for, the activities you want to do during your engagement session, the time of day that works for the specific location we’ve chosen, it’s time for you to select your outfits for your engagement session! But – I’m going to save those tips for another Monthly Tidbit edition (hint – check back on the first Monday of next month for this info!)

Needless to say, a lot of time, thought and effort will and SHOULD go into selecting your engagement session location. It needs to be something that reflects the type of scenery that you two love AND a location that allows you two do something that you enjoy together (even if it’s just rolling down a sand dune or hiking up a trail!). But the best part? If you book your engagement session with me, I 100% promise to help you two select the PERFECT location. 

Cheers!

Allison

Want to book your engagement session, wedding or elopement with me? Click here to read all about my pricing! (each wedding collection includes a FREE engagement session!)