Earlier this year we collaborated with our pals at Rocky Mountain Bride for a collaborative feature on our favorite engagement session locations, you can view that here. Following that, we opened up a Q+A on our Instagram for your questions on all things engagement sessions. We’ve sat down and come up with answers to all of your pressing questions with this sweet little guide. Cheers to all the newly engaged babes out there, this special blog is just for you!
Q: What’s the best time of day for engagement photos?
We prefer the evening light at dusk and into blue hour. This is when the light is at its most golden and softest, thus creating a very neutral, flattering, and most evenly dimensional light to work with.
Q: How do you make sure your couples feels comfortable especially if one is more shy?
This scenario is actually very common and typically the norm, as we usually rarely have a couple where both the bride and groom are super outgoing and extroverted. We've had tons of practice with the more introverted and shy type & we’d definitely say that making sure you find a photographer/photography team that you connect with and feel comfortable with will help make things feel more natural.
A few questions to mull over when considering a photographer should include: What do you feel when you look through their website and images? How do they make you feel corresponding through email and phone conversations? Typically those feelings are good indicators of what you'll feel at the session. Are you going through the galleries and images and seeing that they are excelling in connection and interaction? Or are the images more stale and impersonal? Chances are that if you get those warm and fuzzy vibes while looking through their work & interacting with them, that is most likely what you'll get at your shoot!
Through the years we've found that keeping the session more active and finding ways for our couples to interact with each other by giving easy prompts like: “Scott look over at Emma, Emma look at us, Scott place your forehead on Emma's temple, kiss her cheek or anywhere but her lips, whisper your favorite breakfast meal in your sexiest voice, now lock hands and walk towards us, look at each other, look at us!” Prompts like this will keep the session light hearted, silly, and fun, taking the shoot away from a stiff, awkward forced vibe to having your shy fiance come out of his or her shell for a bit!
Q: Suggestions for great outfits, designers, and style?
If you hired a professional wedding photographer, they should more than likely have tons of wardrobe and outfit ideas, suggestions and insight. With the ALP team, we gift our couples with a welcome box that includes a custom wedding magazine/guide covering things specifically like engagement sessions and wardrobe, timing, details and all things engagement session! A lot of our brides tend to wear brands like Anthropologie, Lulus, & Madewell to name a few! We'll cover outfits and styling in a little more detail below, but keeping it minimal, neutral, and something that is complementing to the location is always a safe start. You can always layer on accessories like a nice statement necklace, fun hat, unique belt or pretty scarf. If you are more of a patterns and bold colors type of girl (or guy!) then we’d maybe suggest keeping your location more simple to let you and your fiance's fun personality shine
Q: Speaking of location, what is the best location to capture all the southwest charm in New Mexico?
The Southwest charm is so broad and its hard for us to say what our favorite truly is . When we think Southwest, our minds immediately goes to our vast vegetation, the desert & yuccas/chamsia/cholla trifecta and the rolling hills and the views, but others think ristras, crushed adobe, and pueblo revival architecture. There is no right or wrong answer just tons of options so for the desert look, we’d go either far west for flat desert or far east for the rolling hills at the base of the Sandia mountains (that still provides the chamisa/cholla/yucca combo & where you can still get a desert vibe, strangely enough!). For adobe and ristras and that quintessential New Mexico look, we'd reccomend Old Town Albuquerque or downtown Santa Fe. Look through your photographer’s galleries and see what location you connect to and are attracted to the most. We put together a guide to some our most treasured locations with our friends at Rocky Mountain Bride, so more inspo, follow the link below!
Alicia Lucia’s Guide to the Top New Mexico Engagement Spots
Q What’s thebest attire for men?
This again ties back to personality and location chosen. We've had grooms show up to shoots in a 3 piece suit, rocking that dapper look, to grooms shutting it down in a jean jacket and beanie. Get with your photographer, nail down a location, and then base your attire on what the overall look your trying to achieve while still keeping your personality and the location in mind.
Q: How do we make sure our style doesn't clash with the location?
As mentioned earlier, a good photographer will be basing the location options off of your attire & this is why good/open communication is important and constant correspondences is so necessary. If your photographer is not in contact with you or helping/preparing you for your engagement session, then we'd definitely re-evaluate.
Q: How do we incorporate props?
Cover that with your photographer first to make sure a) the location allows it and doesn't have any restrictions and b) that the location is flattering/complimenting to the prop you are wanting to incorporate.
Q: How many photos should we expect to receive from one engagement session?
We typically deliver anywhere between 50-100 photos.
Q: How far in advance should we book?
Our brides book their wedding dates with us about a year to a year and a half out with their engagement sessions being booked about 4-8 months before their wedding
Q: What is the typical turn around for photos be? My sisters wedding photographer took a month.
We'd say that is probably average but we've worked hard to nail down our post wedding processing and have streamlined our process to a t so we can turn a round wedding galleries anywhere between a week to 3 weeks!
Featured Engagements
Jason + Natalie at White Sands (Alamogordo, NM)
Chris + Ari at Los Poblanos (Albuquerque, NM)
Derek + Brigitte at White Mesa (San Ysidro, NM)
Trey + Clara at Old Town (Albuquerque, NM)
Paul + Carolyn at the Bosque (Albuquerque, NM)
Tom + Justine in Central Park (New York, NY)
Evan + Jocelyn at White Mesa (San Ysidro, NM)
Matt + Allie at a Private Estate (Santa Fe, NM)
Geoff + Jocelyn at the Rock House (Albuquerque, NM)
Andrew + Deanna at Nob Hill + Old Town (Albuquerque, NM)
Engagements by Alicia, Ashley, and Bre of Alicia Lucia Photography
Blog + Photo Curation by Jaclyn of Alicia Lucia Photography
