An obvious trophy husband on the morning of his wedding day.
Salinas, CA - Finding the love of your life is no easy task. And once you do, dropping to a knee and proposing your love can be nerve wracking. In fact, it may be the biggest step in your relationship so far! But these moments are fleeting and difficult to capture on your own. This is where I come in. I’ve got the gear and the skills to preserve these memories for you so you can be yourself and get lost in the moment. I can’t imagine being tasked with setting up a camera on the beach while the love of my life is standing there wondering what I’m doing all while I’m trying to calm the nerves and propose in the way I dreamed of. No, no, no. You want a seasoned, professional photographer who’s going to capture the best images of you two from the best angle in an amazing location. Once the champagne is popped to celebrate your successful proposal, the journey to your wedding day is just getting started!
A bride on her journey to her wedding day. Some brides walk for days to their wedding day!
What are the differences between a proposal Photo session and an engagement photo session?
I am so glad you asked! The route that many couples take (and what I recommend as a photographer) is to have photos taken of your proposal, engagement, and wedding all by the same professional. This keeps your look and aesthetic consistent and builds trust with your photographer leading up to your big day. Here’s how a proposal shoot and engagement shoot differ and why I recommend doing both.
Almost 100% of the time, proposals are done as a surprise. At the time of writing this I’ve shot close to 100 proposals and I think only one was a planned event. So more than likely, this means only one of you knows they are about to be the center of attention in a professional photo shoot. Despite both of you looking fancy and clean, only the one doing the proposal is mentally ready to take photographs. Often times, the person being proposed to ends up in tears of joy which can do a number on makeup and their eyes! Even if your partner loves being in photos and is super spontaneous, they might not appear how they want or be where they want mentally for these important photographs. I consider my photos of proposals to be mostly candid where I’m just trying to document the day. Things don’t have to be perfect, we’re just documenting the day. If it’s windy and your partner’s hair is blowing all over the place and they don’t look their best because of it, that’s fine! I’m just documenting! These images are meant for you to look back on in 30 years and say, “Oh, wow. Remember how your knee got wet and stayed that way the rest of the day? Haha!”
A common reaction of mine during a fun shoot. You’ll probably see this a lot.
With engagements, both of you are ready for a shoot. You have both looked at my photo packages and we’ve all agreed where we’re shooting and know what to expect. Engagement sessions are where we will care about hair blowing around in the wind and blocking faces. We will care about not getting your feet wet and sandy at the very beginning of our shoot. Your outfits will match (if not in color, in style) and we’re just going to be more prepared overall. Your partner won’t be wondering why you both got dressed up to go climb this hill overlooking the ocean or why they’re in heels on the beach, haha.
Also, engagement sessions are longer which gives us a great opportunity to get to know each other and for me to find your best looks. A photographer that just shows up to your wedding day having never photographed you (or even seen you before) may not get the photos that someone your experienced with will. I really think that having trust in your photographer to capture you from the best angles on your wedding day is vital to creating beautiful images.
To sum it up, proposals are a surprise. Engagements are planned.
Yeah, I totally planned for these pelicans to soar over them like this.
You photographed my wedding proposal, what’s next?
You are full of great questions today! Ideally at this point, I’ve photographed your proposal, we’ve popped some bubbly to celebrate, I’ve edited your photos, and you love them. Great. The next step is to begin the wedding planning process. Some couples are further along in this stage than others at this point and that’s totally fine. Once you two have picked a date and venue, we can move forward with booking your engagement session. Usually, engagements are done around 3 months to a month out from your wedding date, but there is no right or wrong way to do this. Often times, couples like to get prints of their favorite moments during their engagement session and have them framed and scattered throughout their wedding venue. If you wanted to go in that direction, we would need to plan more time to get your images printed and framed so the earlier the better for your engagement session.
However, if you love your proposal images and want to plan an engagement session right away that’s acceptable too. As long as we both have availability and the weather is in our favor we are good to go. The only thing that may come in to play with your engagement shoot is whether or not I need a permit to shoot where we’ve planned. State Parks and State Beaches require me to obtain a photography permit and they need a minimum of two weeks notice and they are not always guaranteed for the date we want one.
This spot definitely needs a permit. But look how incredible it is! That’s the biggest ocean in the solar system behind them!
engagement sessions are included in my wedding packages.
Any wedding photography investment that is 6 hours or longer includes an engagement photo session! This helps keep your images looking consistent leading up to your wedding day. Planning that day can already be a huge headache but imagine having to vet a different photographer for every stage. That would be a nightmare. Plus, after I’ve photographed your proposal and engagement sessions, we’re going to be best friends by the time your wedding day gets here!
How many images would we receive overall going knee to aisle with you?
The options I offer can allow you to take a couple different paths from your proposal to your wedding day. For proposals and engagements I offer two options each. If you went with the “Yes!” proposal package and went on to have a 6 hour wedding, you would look to receive upwards of 600 photos from knee to aisle. Going with the premium offers (“Champagne” proposal and the “Eternity” wedding investment),the number of images you would receive would be somewhere in the ballpark of 1,100. However, all sessions vary so there is no exact number of photos delivered for weddings.
Put a ring on it
To tie the knot, the main reasons to go from knee to aisle with one photographer is for trust and consistency. It’s important to be able to trust that you and your photographer are on the same page on your wedding day and that trust comes from our earlier photo sessions. Having me photograph your proposal and engagement is the key factor in building that trust for both of us. And if you love the images from your proposal, you know you’re going to love the memories preserved from your engagement and wedding.
Thank you for coming to my John Talk!
A rare photo of the photographer! John Ruddock in his natural habitat.
