5 Simple Steps to Styling Your Engagement Session with Ease

Lauren Megerdichian
December 8, 2018
Categories: Engagement Session, Planning & Advice, The Blog, Weddings 101
Tags: Newly Engaged Challenge

Rom-com marathons, cozy fires and mistletoe at every turn – it’s no wonder the holidays mark the start of engagement season. There’s no better way to capture this exciting time than a celebratory photoshoot! But where do you start? Where should you go? What are you going to wear?! Don’t stress – we’ve got 5 simple steps to help style your engagement session to perfection. For a little inspiration along the way, we’re sharing the cutest Palm Springs e-session from Cavin Elizabeth Photography – it’s complete with the happiest bride-to-be, two super cute pups and lots and lots of PINK!

From Cavin Elizabeth… How often do you happen upon a hotel so Palm Springs you think they might as well place the city center there? The Sands Hotel features not only an exquisite mix of pink walls and black and white striped cabanas (hello summer!), but also makes gorgeous cocktails and allows dogs. Naturally, Taylor and Greg included their precious pomeranians (@pompalms) in their session along with fruity drinks, a tropical bouquet, and stylish outfits that were practically made for this venue! Every inch of the hotel is so chic and colorful and photographed beautifully on film. Taylor and Greg completely fit right in and loved every second of their session with their pups. For Taylor’s outfits, she chose a fitted green dress that she paired with a fun pair of tropical wedges from Michael Kors. Her second outfit featured a textured black dress with rose gold sequins. Greg wore complementing tuxedos from The Black Tux to ensure he looked as equally sophisticated and upscale. If you’re thinking about heading to Palm Springs for your own engagement photos, let these be proof that it’s always a great idea!

From the bride… Greg, an operations manager in the cannabis industry, is from Louisville, Kentucky but met Taylor in her hometown of Manhattan Beach through a dating app. (Don’t judge!) After several weeks of giggly exchanges of Beavis & Butthead quotes, their favorite YouTube videos of sloths, and their favorite house music tracks, they decided to meet up at the local Starbucks. Which after about 4 seconds turned into a trip down to the local beach bar. Their second date quickly escalated into a sweet 6 hour drive to Vegas the very next night. Four short weeks later Greg flew Taylor out to Louisville to meet his family and to attend his (now her!!) favorite music festival, Movement in Detroit, Michigan. It’s been all laughs and unexpected adoptions of small dogs to add to their fur family ever since! While Taylor & her family have been taking weekend & Spring Break trips to Palm Springs since maybe a couple of weeks after exiting the womb, after Taylor took Greg to Palm Springs for his very first, it’s fair to say they both fell in love with the quiet, yet colorful and architectural splendor of the desert, all over again.

It’s our escape from the LA traffic, and it’s where our love for one another grew even stronger, so we knew for a fact that both our wedding & our engagement shoot with Cavin should take place right here, where both our hearts feel their most whole. And of course, where traffic wouldn’t be a concern. We were so happy to have found Cavin through our wedding planner, Laura Kelly of Josefina Events. Cavin’s use of color and incredibly vibrant, warm light caught my eye instantly, and after meeting with her, I knew just as quickly she would be the perfect fit for us. I told her Greg’s one and only concern for our engagement shoot was that he’d look like a ‘sad guy on a farm’ to which Cavin got the biggest kick out of! Probably because her work couldn’t be less sad or less farmy, but moreover she got our vision and our vibe just instantly! When I showed Cavin a couple of photos of the newly opened Sands Hotel, it was clear that she fell in love just as quickly with the space as I did!! We both have a thing with pink, what can I say?! And the property is even more fabulous and incredibly chic in real life, which I didn’t think could be possible!!

Our session with Cavin was absolutely amazing. It felt like we were having a conversation with an old friend while we walked our dogs, who just happened to be snapping candid photos of us when we were laughing at her jokes! She loved both of our Poms, Coco & Winnie, and anyone who falls in love with our dogs are pretty much instantly considered good people in our book! We had both been kind of apprehensive about the engagement shoot and put it off as long as we possibly could (hence our illustrated “Save The Dates”!!) and now I have no idea why we were so against it?! We had so much fun with Cavin and now we’re sad it’s over and wish we could do it all over again!! Maybe just as an excuse to buy more new dresses and hang out with Cavin?! Or at the very least to see Greg in his tux from The Black Tux again!! First duty as a wife, might have to be encouraging my husband to wear his tuxedo as often as possible. I’m pretty certain my handsome future hubby was born to wear a perfectly-tailored tux!!

Being featured on Style Me Pretty, oh my goodness I cried when Cavin told me the news! Then my planner called me and I cried for 10 straight minutes on the phone with her, we are all so beyond excited!! I’ve been following SMP probably before I even met Greg! Aside from just weddings, the loving community that SMP has built of those like-minded creatives who too, live for colorful, imaginative ideas captured gorgeously by incredibly talented photographers across the globe, it’s a website that brings me so much joy; and images that have constantly inspired so many various areas of my life, and well before I was even planning my own wedding! I’m living in my own dream. I’m so delighted and so deeply honored that we get an opportunity to contribute our own vision to not just a blog, but an institution, and a wonderful community, one that has been an inspiration-laden home to me for so many years.

5 SIMPLE STEPS TO STYLING YOUR ENGAGEMENT SESSION WITH EASE

1. Pick a place that reflects your personal style. Whether you’re an adventure-loving pair who likes to spend free time hiking uncharted trails or you’d rather be snuggled up with a movie at home… make sure your engagement photos reflect what you love to do as a couple! Don’t ever feel like your photos need to look a certain way – if you want to set up a fort in your living room, get tangled up in twinkle lights and snack on junk food during your shoot – then by all means… GO FOR IT!

2. Wear something you’re comfortable in. This means if you feel your best in stilettos and a knock-out gown, then wear stilettos and a knock-out gown. If your vibe is more jeans and a t-shirt, then yup… you guessed it, rock those jeans and t-shirt! One of the most important things to remember when styling your engagement photos is making sure that when you look back on them in however many years – you still see you.

3. Choose a photographer whose photography style will best capture your love. When you start your search for your dream engagement photographer, take a good look at their style of photos. Are they bright and airy? Moody and romantic? No matter what they may be, keep this in mind when deciding which style will be the best fit for capturing your unique love.

4. Incorporate furry friends. (Our personal favorite) If you can’t imagine not including your furry friends when celebrating this exciting time – then totally bring them along to your session! Trust us, they will love every minute of it and the pictures will turn out to be too cute for words.

5. Lastly, relax and have fun with it! If we could only give one piece of advice to our readers on the topic of engagement photos, it would be to relax and just enjoy it! Don’t worry about learning poses you’ve seen on Instagram or looking perfect, just be yourselves and get comfortable! We guarantee any photographer would agree. And the more playful, the better… that’s how you’ll get those priceless shots!