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i wouldn't necessarily recommend what we did but since we were planning the wedding from 2,000 miles away and didn't have a chance to do it sooner, we had our engagement photo shoot 3 days before the wedding. yes. it was as crazy as it sounds. but the pictures are wonderful and our photographer is amazing.
http://www.danielchinphotography.com/
he even had some preview pictures ready for us the next day and had a stack of photo cards for our guests at the wedding, with a link to his website where the wedding pictures were posted!
Ours are scheduled to be 5 months before our wedding. We would have liked to do it sooner, but with the holidays there were too many scheduling conflicts.
We haven't taken ours yet, but our photographer said people usually do it 6 months before the wedding. But he also said anytime we would like up to a couple weeks before the wedding.
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we haven't had ours done yet because we are planning so far out, but we plan to do ours about 7 months prior. We want to use them for the STDs and that will give us ample time to get them printed and such. We are planning on using a different photog than for our wedding just due to how expensive photography is. We are planning on using a local photography student to save some money.
We were engaged in November and we did the photos in december (his mom wanted them for Christmas cards). Our wedding is Nov, 2009.
Thanks everyone! Your comments are very helpful in providing me with a timeline. 
6 months prior to the wedding... and yes, theoretically we are using them as Save the Dates... and no, we haven't sent them out yet... and yes, I definitely have some anxiety over this fact! Oh but the engagement photos were great (and free)!
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we actually did ours about 18 months out, but obviously we've had a LONG engagement. we got engaged last december, did our engagement shoot in april or may 2008, and we're getting married december 2009. the timing worked well for us though.
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We're having a 1.5 year long engagement and took our pictures about 6 months before the wedding. (It felt so weird to take our "engagement pictures" when we'd already been engaged a full year!) Anyway, we are using the same photographer for our engagement pictures and our wedding pictures. I'm glad because our first few engagement pictures looked kind of awkward while we were warming up to the photographer and she was finding the best angles for us. I'm glad we got those out of the way!
We took ours 2 months before our wedding.
We did use the same photographer for both the wedding and the e-pics. It was part of the package. I would have wanted to use her anyways to get a feel for her style.
a whole year ahead! they were just test shots which we kinda used as e-pics, which we used nowhere except on the wedding website though. i think it's a great way to 'test drive' a photog you're interested in!
We're getting married in July but took our pics back in October (to have the fall colors in the background). I have a friend getting married a week before me and she isn't having hers taken until April.
We took ours in October and we're getting married next August. We too, used the same photographer that will be doing our wedding. We've had a really long engagement and I was really excited to get them done!
Five months! And yes, we used the same photographer! It is a great way to test someone out before you commit to having them photograph your big day! I highly recommend doing this. We weeded out one flaky photog who bailed on our engagement shoot (on the day of!), and then found our current photographer, Jennifer Nichols, who was a dream to work with. Once we got our engagement photos back, we booked her for the wedding!
We drove up to dallas to have my friend take our engagement photos a year out and they turned out beautifully with the exception of my tummy. From forehead straight down past the chest and then suddenly.. buloop...and again straight down. Food storage from the holidays. I'm making an effort to get into better shape and have them retaken in time for the save the date which is sent out 6 months out. 
I think it's a totally personal decision - consider these factors:
- what season do you want the e-shoot to take place in? For instance, if you are getting married in the summer, you may want to do fall photos.
-is your venue confirmed? you may want something that contrasts your venue. Our venue is a historic mansion on four acres of grounds. We decided we wanted an urban background for our engagement shoot.
-do you want to use a photo for your save the dates?
We just took ours last weekend where we met in San Francisco. We live in LA and are getting married in CT. We used our photographer and I cannot stress how valuable it will be to shoot with your wedding photographer before the big day. You'll get to know them as a photographer and hopefully bond with them. When they show up at your wedding, it should be like seeing a friendly familiar face. No stress about how they are going to turn out.
We had the same photographer take our e-session and wedding pictures, it was apart of our package.
We took our e-pictures in August and got married in october.
We are taking 2 sets of pictures- 1 is one month before the wedding, and the other is 5 months before. I would recommend having the same person take pictures at the wedding so you can get a feel for the person, but unfortunately thats just not possible for me because of scheduling conflicts. :(
We haven't taken ours yet, but it looks like they will be about 6 months before our wedding.
Almost a year in advance. We wanted to use one in the STD design, and have the pictures reflect the season (summer) in which we'll marry.
Ours will be taken about six months prior. We're not using the same photographer, but that's because our orignal photographer is doing them as a favor, she is pregnant and will not be able to shoot our wedding, but offered to do our engagement shoot.
We haven't taken our yet and we've been engaged for 13 months. They are scheduled for the end of next month, so 3 months before the wedding. I was hoping to have them done by now, but life happens and things came up. I'm hoping to at least get one picture for display at the reception as an 11x14, so I'm hoping we have time to do that. Also, I would like to put an engagement announcement with photo in the local paper before the wedding.
Ours will be about 7 months before the wedding. We are using the same photographer that is doing our wedding because it was part of the package and I also feel like it's a good way to get to know and be comfortable with your photographer.
We haven't taken our pictures, yet. We have been engaged for over a year and will be getting married in July. We are planning on getting the pictures done in April when the trees are blooming. Where we live, it is really incredible.
We are doing them soon so we can use one of the photo's on our save the dates! 
We got ours done a year before (we're getting married in the spring and wanted spring engagement photos) AND we got ours done for free!
They weren't done by the same photographer who's shooting our wedding, but by a student at a local college who wanted photography experience. We hired a seasoned photographer for the wedding, but she's seem some of the shoots that we love.
We haven't taken ours yet, but will do it about 3-4 months before the wedding. And, yes, we are using the same photographer. It will be a good opportunity for us to get comfortable with the photographer and for him to get to know us a little better!
We're taking ours 2 months prior to the wedding. And yes, we're using the same photographer that is shooting our wedding. I am extremely happy about this decision, because it gives me the chance to get to know my photographer and to see her work before our wedding. Plus, she will get to know us-- both personally, and photogenically, meaning she'll be able to tell how we feel about certain poses or how we react when she asks us to do things. Plus, she'll figure out how quickly she needs to change things up to keep my FI interested in taking pictures!!! :)
We took ours about 7 months in advance because we wanted to use them for our STD. Our friend was our photographer for engagement pictures so we were able to schedule the shoot while in her area. They've been really helpful to have early to use on our wedding website and display at showers.
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We took some already (7 months before the wedding). But it was cold so we didn't do any outside pictures. So we are waiting till April to do outside pictures (which will be almost 3 months before the wedding).
We were planning on doing it 6 months before the wedding but weather conditions were great in Chicago. We had to reschedule and it turns out we're going to do the E-shoot a week before the wedding. I'm not worried about the quality of the pictures, I'm just hoping we can have a few pictures in time for the wedding! :)
BTW - we wanted outdoor shots of us in our neighborhood and the city and our wedding is in the summertime so 6 months before the wedding wasn't ideal for us.
We tried to take them in the fall right after we got engaged, but due to the weather we pushed it until this coming April. We will still be able to use them for our STD, but it will be cutting it close on timing. Our engagement photos came with our photographer so it was a bonus for booking with her!
We are doing ours about 16 months before the wedding. We're planning from afar, and we wanted to use our wedding photographer for our engagement pictures as well.
16 months is probably early, but it just works out that we'll be visiting our location in May, and that might be the only time we get there before wedding time!
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We had ours done 1 1/2 months before the wedding. We weren't originally going to do them, but one of my coworkers is a budding photographer and she took them. They were quite lovely and the price was right.
We had a 2-year engagement, so we took our photos about a year after we were engaged and a year before the wedding. It was very fun to do that!
I hope to take ours this spring, so about 7-8 months before the wedding. We have to pick a photographer by then! Eek!
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We had a 3.5 year engagment and we did ours a month before the wedding. It was kind of a last minute decision to do them because we finally found a second photographer to do them that was cheap and we liked their work. I'm a DW bride, so I already blew my photography budget on a photographer for the wedding.
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Hi hive!
How long before your wedding did you have your engagement pictures taken? Also, did you have the same photographer for both engagement and wedding photos?
Thanks!