What to wear guide
for your engagement photos
the rundown
Holy shucka’da’bundy, I know it can feel kind of rattling to decide what to wear for photos. Here are a few guidelines I’ve put together so you guys can be sure to look sizzling and be all over each other, while still making sure the images are focused on your guys’ love, not what clothes you’re rocking. This is just what's worked best from trial and error over past shoots, they’re only guidelines, not laws!
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Ultimately, I want you guys to look + feel like yourselves. The most important thing to me is that you guys feel and look like yourselves, how you normally dress, so you can be as comfortable as possible! A lot of people try to go shopping for new clothes for the shoot beforehand but I actually recommend not going that route. Bring stuff you normally wear, stuff that’s already in your closet that you love and feel yourselves in. An old band t-shirt and ripped jeans? Perfect. A lot of my couples will go shopping for “nicer” looking clothes which is totally fine, but sometimes they regret not just wearing they feel like themselves in. Who cares if you look back at the photos in 20 years and laugh about what you’re wearing? As long as it represented what you guys are like right now, that's all that matters. Plus, guys are usually not all that stoked about putting on a collared ironed button up with dress shoes if they’re used to wearing flannels and Chacos every day. Pinky promise they’ll be way happier to be at the shoot if you don’t force an outfit he thinks is stupid.
Here’s a few guidelines to help if you’re feeling lost about what to wear.
First off, I always recommend to bring options.
To get the best results, I’ll pick and choose from the options you bring for you guys to change into for the location(s) we shoot at. This way I can make sure the outfits compliment the environment so that the focus is on you two, not on any distractions, which yes, can be your outfits. All you have to do is make sure you bring stuff that you feel like a million bucks in that we can pick and choose from!
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Don’t bring your whole closet though. It will take too much time for me to go through everything and will take time away from your session. Most people bring two or three bottoms + three to four tops each, that way you can bring dresses, accessories, jackets and whatnot as well. Also, just know that depending on where we are shooting, you’ll most likely be changing in the back of the car on the side of the road. If you aren’t down with that, that’s totally fine and you can just bring one outfit! Just make sure to text me a few photos of the outfit options you have and we can pick it out together beforehand.
01. Make sure it makes sense.
Think about the conditions and locations we are going to be shooting in and plan around it.
If we are going to be hiking around the mountains, bring shoes with good grip that you won’t twist your ankles in. If we are shooting on a sandy beach, it would look weird if you’re wearing shoes (p.s. heels are almost always a bad idea in most scenarios, unless you’re freakishly good at walking in them haha). If it’s freezing cold outside, bring lots of layers and warm clothes with wool socks and boots. If it’s going to be hot, bring clothes that can breathe more so you don’t have sweaty pit stains in the photos. Be as comfortable as you can be!
02. hair and makeup
A lot of people ask me whether or not they should get your hair and makeup done by a pro. My answer is always “whatever will make you feel the best, do that.”
I absolutely don’t think it’s necessary whatsoever. I can’t even tell you how many times I’ve had girls show up to shoots wiping off the caked on makeup and taking out 500 bobby-pins their makeup and hair artist did because it just doesn’t look like them. But, if you want your hair and makeup done, then definitely do it, because the most important thing is that you feel confident like Beyonce always.
If you’re getting hair and makeup done, I recommend you schedule to be done at least an hour before you have to leave for the shoot so you aren’t late.
Also, if you’re whiter than toothpaste and want a spray tan, be sure to get a suuuuper natural airbrushed spray tan rather than one from a salon/tanning place. We don’t want you looking like an oompa loompa!
03. Props
I agree, when I think “props”, my mind flashes through all of the cringe-worthy Pinterest photos I’ve seen of cheesy chalkboards and hobby lobby props brought to shoots that basically just make me want to scratch my eyes out with a nail filer.
But props don’t have to be cheesy! Props could be a dominos pizza picnic, a sweet motorcycle, an old camera, your cats (if you have a dog and don’t bring it I’ll be absolutely devastated), blankets, a truck/car, a campfire, a bouquet, a surf board, etc.
If you have props you wanna incorporate, let me know and we can make sure to incorporate them in a non-cheesy way!
04. Patterns.
Avoid big, loud, chunky, crazy patterns. The smaller or more subtle, the better!
If the pattern is too loud, it will distract from your faces. I usually try to avoid pairing too many patterns together because, you guessed it, it makes the photos feel a little hectic and distracting from your faces and the location. Also, be sure to iron your clothes before so there’s not huge wrinkles distracting from your faces either!
05. colours palette (Warm tones, always).
You wouldn’t think it, but a seamless colour palette is an absolute cannon in the arsenal of creating incredibly aesthetic images of you guys. There’s a lot of science that goes into seamlessly blending colours together but it would take a hot minute (and a beverage or two) to explain everything there is to know about colour theory. So to save an ear-bleeding conversation, I’ve put together a few of my favourite tones that I KNOW work beautifully together, no matter who’s wearing which colour.
Depending on the type of environment we’re shooting in, I recommend the colour palette’s below.
— A rule of thumb: when in doubt, choose neutral colours.
Shooting on the beach
Shooting in and around the beach is usually quite a ‘bright’ atomosphere. Usually the sun’s reflecting off the sand and the white wash of the waves in the background, so I encourage my couples to wear darker clothes to contrast you both against the bright atmosphere behind you.
shooting in THE FOREST
Forests are beautiful, they’re also incredibly overpowering with a plethora of green and dark tones everywhere! If we’re doing your engagement photos in and around a forest, the foolproof way to make sure you both don’t disappear into the background is to wear brighter colours.
shooting iN AN open field
Forests are beautiful, they’re also incredibly overpowering with a plethora of green and dark tones everywhere! If we’re doing your engagement photos in and around a forest, the foolproof way to make sure you both don’t disappear into the background is to wear brighter colours.
Notice anything that’s not there to be noticed?
that’s right, there’s no colour blue.
In the effort of blending our tones seamlessly together throughout our shoot, I encourage couples to avoid wearing the colour blue. This is because blue is what’s known as ‘complimentary colour’ to most of our warm colours. You’d think we want to compliment our colours throughout our photos, right? Of course we do! That’s what we have the sky for.
The blue shades from the sky are in perfect harmony with our warm colour palettes above, and helps balance our photos out beautifully. That being said, if you feel the most ‘yourself’ rocking a pair of denim jeans, hell yeah! Let’s do it! Just try to keep your blues nice and muted so they doesn’t distract from your warm skin tones.
Welp, that’s all folks!
LET ME KNOW IF YOU HAVE ANY QUESTIONS!
You’re gonna be rocking some serious fire attire in no time.
Still freakin out about what to wear? Feel free to shoot me a pic or two of what you’re thinking, or we can create a little Pinterest board together! I’ve linked my personal Pinterest Inspo board below to help get your juices flowing.
Overall, just wear what you’re comfortable in and feel like you in. A pair of Vans you’ve had since 8th grade? Great. A sweater you wore for basically a month straight? Awesome. A hat that you know your mom hates? Perfect. You do you, and I promise the photos will turn out amazing.
