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i don't think you're missing out if you don't do them. it's a nice to have but like many things wedding related, very little is a have to have.
we did them because the photog suggested it. it was fun to be dressed up taking photos in historical antwerp, one of my fi's favorite places. other than getting a photo album out of it, and shots for our e-party thank you cards, we haven't done a lot with the pix from it.
I don't think you are missing out either. I was the same way. I never heard of e-photos before WB so I never got them done. Also, they just weren't in the budget. It is cute to have some "couple" pictures but definitely not a necessity.
We didn't do them. I too had never heard of them until I started <span style="text-decoration: line-through;">stalking reading weddingbee! My husband and I did get pics done at Sears right after we got engaged (well 6 months after) but that was because his family was doing a family portrait and we just did some of us while we were there... we usually get pics done about once a year or so but nothing too serious :-)
we didn't do them. people use them for a guestbook album too, we made an album of pictures of us and friends/family throughout our relationship. and some people display pictures at their wedding. it's just not our thing, and we didn't want to spend the money on it.
Until WB, all the e-photos I saw looked like bad glamour shots.
I don't think you're missing out on anything, but that's because we aren't doing them either. I just don't feel they are necessary... plus my FI feels fat lately, so he'd put up a fight until he drops 20lbs. Sigh.
We didn't do them but we realized we didn't really have any pictures of us that weren't of the wedding so we've decided to have some similar style photos done of the two of us for our first anniversary.
I second RecessionistaBride - when I told my fiance that I wanted to do engagement photos, he immediately thought of some really bad posed glamour-esque photos.
We did them, and I am glad we did. We don't have a lot of photos of us together, I wanted to work with our photographer prior to the wedding, and she takes one of the photos and frames it in a matte for us to use as our guestbook, which we were planning on doing anyway.
My best friend didn't, and it's one of those things that if you read a lot of wedding blogs, you start to think that EVERYONE has to do them... but it's really up to you, and what you want.
I always thought the idea of engagement photos was kind of silly.. until I got engaged. It's a great excuse to get beautiful professional photos of you and your future Hubby that you will keep forever, other than the wedding photos of course. You can also be more creative with them too. But you definitely don't have to get them - it's an extra expense that's not worth it to everyone.
I think there are a couple of really good reasons to do an engagment session if you can -
1. You'll have really fabulous photos of you not in your wedding get ups (not that having your wedding photos everywhere isn't fabulous, but having some less formal pictures is fun as well)
2. You'll be able to get comfortable with you wedding photographer. Not only will they learn your angles, learn how to shoot you best, you'll feel more comfortable with him/her. Your wedding photographer will be with you SO MUCH on that day - from getting ready all through the reception, so it's important to be comfortable around each other :)
Just my two cents, but I wouldn't have changed anything about doing ours - we learned things like my face tenses up a lot in pictures, and Mr. S was doing this silly looking down face in SO MANY of the pictures, so we're a lot more aware of the little things now!
We did not do them. We had some great candid pics of us from a trip to the zoo we used on our save the dates. I love Picasa and Photoshop, so I clean them up a bit. I also did not see spending the money on them, I am a penny pincher and wanted to spend the money on more fabulous things...
P.S. and we got RAVE reviews about our save the dates
Artbee: I didn't even think of the guestbook! We're actually doing a photo guestbook, but since we would have been together for seven (!) years by then, we actually have tons of photos of the two of us.
I think it would have been great if we were able to do it. PPs are right though, after stalking wedding blogs, I started feeling "bad" that we didn't! I think it's that way with a lot of wedding-related things :op
im thinking of NOT doing them either....my FI kind of brought me back to reality bc he was like "whats the point? i dont get it..." Not in a snotty way, but then i was like, well, it would be fun, but whats the point? thats added money and time to get your hair done, makeup done, new clothes, etc....(clearly you can see i am still trying to talk myself out of it HAHAH)
But my big aha moment came with this thought, while meeting with a photography vendor...one selling point that photogs try to use for you to get engagement photos....to get comfortable in front of the camera right? But if your photographer is good enough at what he or she does, they should be able to capture you on your wedding day of as if you were born in front of the camera! Thats how i feel. Those awesome candid wedding pictures that the camera captures while you arent even paying attention, those are the ones Im going for...no need to pay for e-photos then i feel!
We asked a photographer friend to take a couple of shots of us to use on our website, it was very casual and in return we took her out for dinner afterwards...We used an old picture from a b-day party for our save-the-dates. I don't think engagement pics are a must, depends on your preference!
E-shots were not in our budget and they were not at the top of my FI's list. Thankfully I have a few good friends who were able to help us out (for free!). I defintely agree that its great to have picture of the two of you dressed nice (most of our pictures are on the beach or at football games) and they look great in frames around our house (we had a frame project I have some pictures of it here: http://averygatorwedding.blogspot.com/2009/09/e-party-crafting.html ). The $5 for the frames and paint along with a few to print the (free) photos at walmart was DEFINITELY worth it!
We didn't do them and I don't think they're necessary, but I really would like to. My worry is, how late is too late to get them done?
I also agree that it's a great way to get to know your photographer and what to avoid doing on the wedding day.
I don't think they are necessary, but I'm planning on doing them. Not for Save-The-Dates, but to get used to being in front of the camera. Plus, I adore pictures and most of the pics with me and my sweetie are self portraits (I've gotten really good at the stand close together, hold your arm out and take a picture of yourself!) ;) I'm looking forward to have pictures of the two of us in different settings in something other than our wedding attire.
A photographer friend of mine once told me that from a picture taking perspective, the more times you do a shoot with a couple, the more you understand them. If anything, I'd like to get comfortable with my photographer and vice verse before the actual day.
That said, I don't think it's a big deal if you CHOOSE not to do them.
I didn't do engagement pictures ... thought about it though! I also didn't send out stds either ... haha
I didn't do them. Just not our thing. Setting up a session with a photographer feels staged. I bet you would get some good shots. Yeah, I can see how they'd be fun, but I prefer photos of us to be doing things and have the memory associated with them of whatever trip or party or concert.
I don't think it's a big deal either. We're only doing them because they're included in our photo package. Otherwise, I wouldn't pay for them separately.
My FI and I DID take engagement pics! I'm happy we did. His sister has a really good camera and she took really nice pictures you can see a few of them in my wedding website. I think they are a fun and creative way to announce your engagement. You can use them not only for STDs but also to put in your local newspaper.
My fiance and I had absolutely no interest in taking engagement photos. Neither of us are big picture people, and having additonal nice pictures of us just isn't something we needed or wanted. But, it was complimentary in our photographer's package, which basically meant we could use it or lose it. They like to have them so you can practice taking pictures with them and getting comfortable in front of the camera. We're still hesitant, but agreed because if it's in the package, we would rather use it than lose it!
We didn't and I regret it=( We meant to and somehow missed the boat. I'm thinking maybe I can convince FI to do a shoot for our 1 yr anni since I'd really like to have nice professional (and retouched!) photos of us. It's the sort of thing we'll def do once we have kids, so I don't see anything wrong about doing it when it's still just the 2 of us too. And I'd like to include out dogs!!
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I never even heard of engagement photos before I began chatting on this board. And I'm still not entirely sure what you use them for, aside from save-the-dates.
I feel like a dork for never having thought of this, and honestly, I don't know if it would have been in our budget. For our wedding announcement, we just used a "dressed-up" picture we had of the two of us.
Am I missing out by skipping these...?