Engagement/pre-wedding shoots

Regular readers of our blog will notice that we're being kept busy with pre-wedding shoots at the moment. With the wedding season about to kick off again in earnest very soon, this is a great time for us to focus on these shoots.

Engagement shoots are very popular in North America. Remember that episode of Sex and the City when Charlotte & Harry had a photo shoot in Central Park for their Sunday Times announcement? While not everyone makes it into the New York Times, engagements do tend to be announced with a photograph in the local newspaper.

Here in the UK, the engagement/pre-wedding shoot is growing in popularity. Couples are increasingly using these photographs for their save-the-date cards and wedding invites. Signature boards are also becoming very popular - an image from the pre-shoot is enlarged with a border for the guests to sign at the reception. This highly personal alternative to the guestbook looks fantastic.

Our favourite part of the pre-shoot is the wonderful bond that it creates between our couples and us. It's a great way to get to know people better and to find out the best way to photograph them. We usually spend our pre-shoots clambering around urban locations, lying on the ground when the need arises, and always laughing a lot!

Most importantly, the shoot gives the couple the opportunity to get used to being in front of the camera. By the time the wedding day comes they then know exactly what to expect (and we don't get too many raised eyebrows when we drag them off to a random location for photographs!).

Our post-wedding shoots (also sometimes known as Trash the Dress shoots) will be starting up again this month. We have a really exciting location to work in for our first TTD shoot of 2009 so watch this space!