You’re engaged – YAY! It’s time to start planning for your engagement photos. But how the heck do you choose a location?! There is a lot to consider when making this decision. As a seasoned Philadelphia couples photographer, I’m here to help make that decision easy and informed! Here are a few things to consider in order to choose the perfect engagement photo location for YOUR relationship.

Why Engagement Sessions are Awesome

I want to start off by saying how much I LOVE engagement sessions. On my end, I really get to know the couple I’m photographing since there is lots of time to chit chat. I can also get really creative with my photos since there is not usually a tight timeline to stick to, unlike on a wedding day.

Enough about me – engagement sessions are great for YOU as well!! You get super high quality photos of you and your favorite person all cute & lovey dovey. But beyond that, engagement sessions give you two a chance to get used to being in front of the camera before wedding day. That means when wedding day rolls around, you can trust your photographer to get incredible photos because they already did for your engagement session!!

Engagement photos can be used all throughout your wedding process as well – for save-the-dates, on your wedding website, for decor at your cocktail hour, for table numbers or centerpiece decor, for welcome signs, for seating charts, etc etc. The opportunities are endless!! They also make great photos to print and hang up because you will most likely look more like yourself in them than you will in your wedding photos. Like, you get to show off your personal style with your outfits and hair and such in your engagement photos. SO. Lots of reasons to love engagement sessions. But I digress.

1. Relationship Significance for Engagement Photo Location

There are FOUR main categories to think about when choosing your engagement session location, and lots of subcategories within those. But starting with these four will help you narrow down those subcategories until you are able to choose the perfect spot!

The first thing to consider is this: Is there any spot that jumps out to you as very significant in your relationship that you and your partner? Do you always go to that one bar for drinks? Do you always walk your dog in a park that you love? Are you both museum buffs and love to immerse yourselves in art or history? If there is, then GREAT!! Now you have a big factor to consider in choosing your engagement session location. If not, don’t panic – we still have three other categories to get through!

2. Indoor vs. Outdoor Locations

The second thing to consider is outside vs. inside. Most engagement sessions happen outside just because there are lots more options outside. While there are beautiful indoor locations, many of them require a purchased photography permit to use the premises. In deciding this, try to picture your engagement photo gallery. What do you picture the background as? More often than not, your subconscious already has an idea of what you’re expecting. And you can use that two ways – if you like the way your imaginary photos look, then go with that! Or if you look at them and think, “we could do something better or more unique than that” – then use that as a guiding light.

Also – side note with this – you could always do an in-home session. If you love your cozy apartment, or you have huge windows you love, or exposed brick in you wall you can’t get enough of, or you just bought a house and want to celebrate that – in-home sessions could be a great option for you!!!

3. Nature Vibes vs. City Vibes

Okay the third category to consider is nature vs. city. With nature, there are so many freaking options haha. We could go to the mountains. We could go to the woods. We could go to a wide open field. We could go by a lake. We could go to the beach. We could go to a flower garden. Literally, the world is your oyster!!

And for city – do you want to stay outside in the city to focus on the architecture, different landmarks, and the hustle & bustle? Do you want to pop inside your favorite bar or coffee shop? Or book shop even? Is there a park in the city you love, so you can get nature and city all in one?

4. Which Season Do You Love Most?

The fourth and final thing to consider is seasons!! Now, you can technically have your engagement session whenever the heck you want. But most couples choose to have their engagement sessions done soon after booking their wedding photographer for two reasons. First is so they can have their engagement photos done in time to use them to make save-the-dates. And second is so they can capture the joy and bliss of being newly engaged!!!

Now looking at the four seasons – with spring and summer, you have the luxury of a late sunset!! That means you have flexibility for the days of the week you can have your session, which is oftentimes very beneficial because photographers tend to have their weekends booked up by weddings. For spring and summer, there’s lots of green, and there are various flowers in bloom depending on the month! You also have evening thunderstorms to work around this time of year. For fall, you have the gorgeous colors of the leaves, but the sun starts to set earlier which makes weekday options more difficult if you work until 5 p.m. And then for winter, the trees are bare, the sun sets earlier, but weekends are more likely available! And you get to use layers in your outfits for lots of variety, and you have the possibility of SNOW!!!

So there are pros and cons to each and every season. And if you have the luxury of time to choose your ideal season, now you know what to consider! If you found this blog post helpful, check out 9 Engagement Photo Tips to have the Best Photoshoot Ever. You can also listen to my wedding planning podcast, The Busy Bride, for more tips on Spotify or Apple Podcasts!! Happy planning 🙂