Wedding Planning 101 | What Do with Engagement Photos?

Engagement photos, what are they good for? The session itself is wonderful for getting to know your photographer(s), and spending time getting comfortable in front of the camera for your wedding. But other than the obvious (to celebrate getting married!!), what else can you use the pictures themselves for? You paid money for them, and you spent the time to have them taken, so why not show them off in more ways than one? If you’re stumped on how to go about that, today we’re sharing a few of our favorite ways to use your engagement photos.

Please bring your dog to your engagement session.

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How to Make the Most of Your Engagement Photos

1. A custom guest book. This is absolutely our favorite way to use your engagement photos, because it combines the guest book with them! This way you get a gorgeous book full of pictures of you two in love, AND little love notes from all of your friends and family encouraging you in your marriage. It makes a great coffee table book, or even just something to pull off the shelf and show your kiddos a few years down the road. We offer fully customized guest book magazines and albums as an add on to all of our engagement/wedding packages, because we love this idea so much!

2. Save the Dates! Send out a cute postcard with your favorite engagement photo on it to let all of your guests know when you are getting married! If you are going to do this, make sure you get your engagement session done well in advance of your wedding! We recommend getting them done within three months of getting engaged. That way, the ring is still shiny-new and all of the excitement of getting married hasn’t transitioned into the process of planning the wedding!

Tiphanie and John used this picture for their adorable save the dates! Taken in front of Scott Stadium on game day.

3. Thank you cards! Much like Save the Dates, you can make little post cards or thank you notes out of your engagement photos to send off after your bridal shower, or whenever you get something off of your registry before the wedding. This makes a simple ‘thank you’ even more personal for your guests!

4. Personalized wedding favors and/or decorations. Some of these can get a little cheesy… but I have seen some classy ways to use them! Your engagement photos can be on display at your dessert table, or even at your guest book table (if you don’t use an engagement photo guest book)! We’ve seen them used for seat charts, and even on customized bottles of wine.

5. Christmas cards! Let’s face it, you likely will not get any more pictures of yourself taken the year you get married. You’ll be focusing on way more important things- like being married, moving, sending thank yous, etc… So, your engagement photos will be there for you to use during the holiday season!

This was also a winter engagement session, so that made it easier to convert to a Christmas card!

6. Gifts for your grandparents. This one is so sweet. Grandparents love to have pictures of their grandkids to show off. If they love the awkward school photos, and the  cell phone pictures your momma shares, think about how much more they will treasure a beautiful engagement photo of you and your fiancée!

7. Lastly, social media. You’ll probably be sharing a lot about your wedding leading up to it (rightfully so, you are excited!!), so why not post with an engagement photo? Plenty of people use them for countdowns, and we love seeing the buzz build up on social media month after month as the wedding draws closer!

Those are our favorites, though there are plenty more ideas out there. And even if you do none of these, your engagement photos are still beautiful for hanging on the walls of your first home together. We’ll see you next time!

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