So you’re recently engaged and super excited to get the party started, right?! It may be tempting to grab a friend and a decent camera and take some “engagement” pictures before you hire your wedding photographer. But here’s my top three reasons why you should always do an engagement session with your wedding photographer, whether you “need” those photos or not:

1. Relationship building – being comfortable with and trusting your wedding photographer are key to getting great photos on your wedding day. The engagement session is an excellent opportunity to work on this. Not only will you learn about each other, but your photographer will get a great idea of what poses were most flattering and which ones may not work as well for you. This is big in taking some of the guesswork out of your wedding day and makes it easier to get the most out of your portrait time.

2. Knowing what to expect – your wedding photographer will be with you for your entire wedding day. You should make sure this is really someone you enjoy working with. Every photographer has a different posing style and different ways of directing their clients. Some photographers give little to no direction and others like to be very involved in staging poses and moments. Knowing how your photographer will interact with you will help put your mind at ease.