An engagement session usually ends with a gallery the couple looks through twice, sends to their parents, and leaves sitting on their phone. That’s a shame, because there’s a handful of things you can do with those photos that genuinely work on the wedding day, and some of them need preparing well in advance, so it’s worth knowing about them earlier than a month before.
Below are eight uses, from the most obvious to ones couples usually don’t think of. For each one I’ve noted how much time it needs, because that’s the detail that’s usually missing.
1. Invitations
The most common use, and the one with the tightest deadline.
Invitations usually go out two or three months before the wedding, and before that they need designing and printing. Counting backwards, the photos need to be ready about four months before the wedding. If the session hasn’t happened yet, add time for booking it and for editing on top of that.
A few things worth knowing before you pick a photo:
Vertical shots suit invitations better than horizontal ones. Most invitation formats are vertical or square, and cropping a horizontal photo down to vertical usually cuts out half of what you liked about it in the first place. If you know the photos are going on invitations, mention it before the session. It changes how I frame the shot, and it costs nothing.
Leave room for text. A shot where you’re standing dead centre, filling the whole frame, is lovely and useless for layout. A photo with space around you, sky, a wall, a field, gives the designer somewhere to place your names and the date.
Dark photos print darker than they look on screen. That’s normal, and it’s why for invitations it’s better to pick photos that look brighter than you’d choose on your phone.
2. A welcome sign at the entrance
One large photo on an easel or a backdrop board, usually with your names and the date. It greets your guests and sets the mood immediately.
This is the one use where file size genuinely matters, because the print can end up over a metre wide. A photo saved from Instagram is simply not up to it. Printing needs the original file from the gallery, not one sent through a messaging app that lost half its resolution along the way.
The deadline is looser than for invitations, since the sign is usually made two or three weeks before. But print shops get busy during wedding season, so don’t leave it to the last week.
3. A wedding website or group for guests
More and more couples put together a simple website with the practical details: getting there, the day’s timeline, hotels, the account number for gifts. Engagement photos stop a page like that looking like a form.
In practice, one horizontal photo at the top and two or three smaller ones below is enough. You don’t need more, and the page still needs to load quickly on a phone in the car, when someone’s checking the address.
If you’re putting a page like this together, it’s also a good moment to add a guest-facing version of your wedding day timeline. It doesn’t need to be detailed, three points are enough: ceremony, reception, end.
4. A photo guest book
Instead of a notebook where guests write one line, you make an album with printed engagement photos and space for a message next to each one.
It has one advantage over a classic guest book: people write more willingly when they have something to react to. Instead of “best wishes”, you get comments on a specific photo, and those read completely differently years later.
Best done a month ahead, since a printed album means another queue at the print shop.
5. Place cards, a seating plan and other small details
Small prints by the place settings, a seating plan with a photo in the background, table numbers. Here the photo is a background, not the main event, so calm shots work well, and they don’t need to be ones where you’re front and centre.
One practical detail: if a photo is going behind text, pick one with a large, even surface. Grass, sky, a wall. Against a busy background, no text stays readable, however large you make it.
6. Thank-you cards for guests and parents
Cards sent after the wedding, usually with a photo from the day itself. Engagement photos work just as well here, and they have one advantage over wedding photos: they’ve been ready for months, so you can prepare the thank-you cards before the wedding and send them out a week later, instead of waiting for the wedding gallery.
A separate note for parents. A printed, framed photo is a gift that works better than a link to a gallery, and costs less than most things bought for the occasion.
7. Something on the wall, just for you
The simplest option, and the one most often put off. Engagement photos have one advantage: they’re yours and only yours, no guests, no family, no wedding in the background.
One framed print on the wall stays there for years. A whole gallery in the cloud stays in the cloud. I say that as someone who delivers hundreds of photos and knows how many of them couples actually look at a year on.
You can order prints yourselves, directly from the online gallery where I deliver the session photos.
8. A dress rehearsal for the wedding, the use you can’t see
The last use isn’t an object, and you can’t print it.
After the session, you know what you look like in photos, how you react to a camera, and which parts of that you actually like. You also know how the photographer you’ve booked for the wedding works. On the day, that translates into one concrete thing: you’re not wondering what to do when a camera comes out, because you’ve already been through it.
That’s the reason I encourage an engagement session for couples who say they don’t like being photographed. The photos themselves are almost a side effect.
Before you pick your photos, sort out two things
Get the original files, not screenshots off your phone. Anything going to print needs files from the gallery. A photo sent through a messaging app or downloaded from social media has already been compressed, and it shows the moment it’s printed.
Check what you’re allowed to do. Before sending the photos to a print shop, an invitation designer or a wedding website, check your contract for how usage rights are set out. It’s usually straightforward, but it’s better to check than assume. I’ve written more about that elsewhere, in the piece on what to ask a photographer before signing a contract.
Frequently asked questions
How many photos from the session do you actually need? Five or six photos are usually enough for everything above. The rest of the gallery is for you, not for print.
When should you do the session to make the invitation deadline? Counting backwards: invitations go out two or three months before the wedding, so the session should happen roughly six months before. Earlier works too.
Are engagement photos suitable for a large print? Yes, as long as you use the original files from the gallery. A file downloaded from a messaging app or social media isn’t.
Do you need to say beforehand what the photos will be used for? You don’t have to, but it helps. If I know the photos are going on invitations or a welcome sign, I’ll make sure to take a few shots with room for text and the right orientation.
Can I edit the photos, add a filter, crop them? That depends on the contract, and it’s a question worth asking directly. Cropping to a format usually isn’t an issue, a strong colour change can be treated differently.
In closing
An engagement session pays off not when the photos are taken, but when they start being used for something. If you already know they’re going on invitations or a welcome sign, mention it before the session, because I’ll shoot a few frames differently as a result.
If you haven’t booked a session yet, I’ve written separately about what an engagement session looks like: where we go, how long it takes and what it costs.