What to Wear to Your Engagement Pictures

Over the weekend (sorry for not posting, it was a crazy one!) I got lucky enough to find the outfits I will end up wearing for my engagement pictures. It has been kind of a crazy search, all dependent on prices, styles, my weight/dress size, and more, but I think I finally found what I was looking for.

Doing all of this shopping, and helping my mother with her own engagement pictures recently (what advice she did take from me) I thought it would be helpful to share the tips photographers give about what clothing you should wear for your pictures. Of course these aren't rules that can't be broken, but following them will ensure your pictures turn out the way you want them to.

I'm taking these rules from my photographer, Jamie Hammond, but I've seen other photographers, like Jason McGrew who offer almost the exact same advice.

Rules for Clothing in Pictures

1. Determine the overall look you're going for (urban, retro, dressy, themed, etc.)
2. Keep it simple. If one of you is wearing a bold pattern or color, try to have the other dress in a solid, more simple pattern that's complimentary to the more boldly dressed person.
3. Watch for lengths. It's really not that good looking to have one person in shorts and the other person in pants, or one in a short sleeved shirt and the other in a long sleeved shirt.
4. Outfit changes are time consuming, but if you want to get a few formal shots in dress clothes, as well as some casual shots, go ahead and bring both outfits to the shoot.
5. Remember that in general, horizontal patterns make you look wider, and vertical patterns make you look longer. It's very emphasized in photographs, so beware.
6. Also, white can wash you out if you have lighter skin. Black and dark colors are slimming.
7. She recommends (loves) girls in semi-formal dresses with heels, and guys in a button-up shirt with a plain-no patterned-solid tie loosely done, and casual black or brown pants or nice dark jeans. Freshen it up for the current season by adding seasonal colors in the dress, jewelry, and guy's shirt, or use your wedding colors if that's preferred.
8. Remember anything you might need to touch up with, such as hairspray, lipstick/gloss, as well as bottled water. I know this isn't something you wear (as clothes) but it's just as important to touch up your look once you get there.
9. Amber's Advice: I personally recommend thinking about the background of where you'll be taking photos. If you're going to the beach, wear colors that will coordinate well with the blue of the water or the brown of the sand or even the green of the grass nearby. Don't wear things that will look too busy along with the background. If you know you want a picture with graffiti in the background, wear something solid, not a print!
10. Amber's Advice: Also beware of your surroundings. If you know you're going somewhere where it will be windy, make sure your hair is hairsprayed tight, or that you're cool with it being loose and free. And if you think there's a chance it might rain the day of your photos, bring along a cute umbrella just in case. You'd rather have an umbrella in your pictures than look like a wet poodle.

If you have any other advice for our couples, please email it to triedandtrueweddings@gmail.com so that we can feature it on the post. This site layout has comments permanently disabled for some reason, and even though I know a bit about coding, I haven't found how to fix it. So until I change layouts, please feel free to email anything you want to say to me and I promise to post it right here!