Engagement Session

Your wedding day has no retakes. This day does

Almost every couple tells me the same thing: ‘we can’t pose’.

You don’t have to. I don’t line people up like for a school class photo. But that sentence doesn’t come from nowhere. Standing in front of a stranger with a camera is awkward, and the first fifteen minutes always feel that way. The only question is when you get through those fifteen minutes: on a calm autumn walk, or on a Saturday at eleven in the morning, when the hairdresser is late, mum is crying and I have half an hour for photos of the two of you.

At an engagement session you’re allowed to get things wrong. On your wedding day there’s no time to learn.

What I get out of it

I get to know you both. Which of you stiffens up on hearing ‘look at each other’. Which of you covers their eyes when laughing. What your real laugh looks like, and what the one on command looks like. Which side you prefer to be photographed from, even if you don’t know that about yourselves.

On the Saturday I have no time to find this out. By then I already know.

No list of poses to tick off

In practice it looks like a walk for the two of you, with someone a few steps to the side taking photos. No standing on one spot with your hands who knows where.

I tell you where we’re going and what to talk about. You do the rest yourselves. The best frames from engagement sessions almost always happen when the couple forgets I’m there.

The session lasts two to four hours, depending on how many locations we have and how it’s going. But in practice I block out the whole day for you. I don’t take another job that day and I don’t plan anything afterwards. I don’t want to be checking my watch just as you’re starting to enjoy yourselves.

We usually start a few hours before sunset and finish when it gets dark. If you’d like some frames after dark, with a flash, that can be done too.

This session works both ways

I’ll say this plainly, because few people in this business do.

It may turn out that we don’t click. I’m direct and sometimes ironic. Most couples like that, because it keeps things from getting stiff. But not everyone does.

I’d rather you found that out at a 1400 PLN session than on a Saturday you’ve spent several times that much on. No couple has yet done a session with me and not come back for the wedding. If it ever happens, no problem. Better for you and better for me.

The session photos stay yours, whatever you decide next.

We choose the place together

Warsaw has more good places for a session like this than you’d think, and not all of them are obvious. Łazienki Królewskie park always works, you just need to know at what time it isn’t crowded. Wilanów, Powsin, the banks of the Vistula, fields outside the city, the old courtyards of Praga. The Zegrze Reservoir, if you want water.

I’ve photographed sessions in cornfields and in an apiary. Have a look too at the engagement session in Pławniowice, the session by the Zegrze Reservoir or the session in Powsin. If you have a place that means something to you, it’s a better idea than the prettiest park on Pinterest. Photos from a place you know look different, because you look different there.

The same goes for what you like doing. Do you climb, cook, ride a motorbike, have a dog that never leaves your side? That’s a better idea for a session than anything I’ll come up with at my desk.

Warsaw and the surrounding area are included in the price. I’m happy to travel further around Poland, and we settle that in the quote. Beyond 200 km from Warsaw, accommodation is added: either you arrange it, or I add it to the total.

Destination session

The session can be combined with a trip of yours. You both fly somewhere, I fly out to join you, we take photos in a place you won’t find near Warsaw, and then everyone goes sightseeing their own way.

The rule is simple and I say it up front, so nothing is left unclear: travel costs are on your side, and I charge my fee fairly for the work, not for the trip. Tell me where and when, and I’ll give you an exact figure.

Wear what you’d wear on your own sofa

The most common mistake is an outfit bought specially for the session. You walk differently in new shoes, you sit differently in a stiff shirt, and it shows in every photo. This session is relaxed. There’s no need to dress up.

Three things that actually make a difference:

And one point that matters more than the three above: dress to match each other. Not in the same clothes, but in the same register. If one of you is in a suit and the other in trainers, the photo looks like a chance meeting.

We agree on outfits in advance, together with the idea for the session and the locations. I don’t leave you to work it out on your own.

Ideally, right after you get engaged

There’s no fixed rule here, but I have my view.

The best moment is right after you get engaged. You’re excited about it then, you have the headspace for it, and it’s easy to find a free weekend. The closer the wedding, the more there is to sort out and the harder it is to arrange anything. A month before the date most couples are already tense, and the session is meant to be a break from the planning, not another item on the list.

There’s also a practical reason: these photos often go on the invitations, a website for guests or the welcome board at the entrance to the reception hall. To be ready in time, they need to be taken well ahead.

And a third: the season shows. A session in May and a session in November are two different sets of photos. If you’re getting married in summer and want pictures in a different setting from the wedding ones, it’s worth spacing them apart.

A wedding session is something else

A wedding session is an outdoor shoot in the dress and suit, after the wedding, on a separate day. It costs from 1900 PLN.

To be honest, I encourage couples to do something else: let’s do the outdoor photos on the wedding day. You’re ready, dressed, with your make-up done and full of emotions that are gone a week later. A short session on the day is in every package. If you still prefer a separate day, we’ll do a separate day. But I’ll ask whether you’re sure.

Frequently asked questions about the engagement session