Our off-season is soon coming to an end and soon, it’s time to capture beautiful wedding days and of course, engagement sessions!! I LOVE engagement sessions for so many reasons but the first reason is always because it’s my first time getting to know my wonderful clients behind my camera and start capturing their memories. Just like weddings, no engagement session is ever the same and it’s always fun to see how each couple is super unique 🙂 One of the great ways that my couples make their sessions unique is by bringing along PROPS! This is something I always recommend to them & it’s always interesting to see what people bring along. I always explain to my brides and grooms that props can mean a variety of things and I’m here to touch further upon that in today’s post!

Props are a GREAT way of making you feel comfortable right off the bat. It’s something that is familiar to the both of you, typically something you both enjoy together or is meaningful and I notice it always makes my couples a little bit happier to have that familiarity nearby during a session when it can feel a bit nerve wracking. The best part about props is this can mean a VARIETY of things, big and small! I always say to connect it back to you both, no matter what. In this post is a variety of different examples of props that my clients have used at their engagement sessions. Above, they simply brought along Starbucks cups! Why Starbucks cups? Well… he proposed at a Starbucks! It’s SUPER meaningful to them so of course they brought them along!

Props can be something that can be applied to your Save the Dates too! Here are two examples of two of my couples that brought along props with their wedding date on them. The banner was actually hung at their engagement party too! Love how multifunctional it is! And the buoys!? LOVE those! She did it herself too! A super cheap prop 😉

There are always couples that share a BIG love for Sports together! Jose and I are two HUGE Mets Fans so we love seeing couples bring along anything related to sports! This can be as simple as Jerseys of the teams you love (Hey! No one said you HAD to love the same team!) The couple in the bottom photo brought along their old Jerseys from high school AND the equipment from their sports! LOVED that idea!

A favorite of mine is BIKES! I personally love bike riding and can’t wait until we get a house so I can buy myself an adorable bike (and more importantly, have somewhere to store it!) So naturally this was a favorite of mine, made even better by the fact that their session was on the Asbury Park Boardwalk! Bikes and boardwalks!? They go together like peanut butter and jelly – perfection!

My favorite “props” of all? DOGS!! Yes… dogs can be considered a prop! That dog is MEANINGFUL to you both and most likely, looked at as a member of your family. Why not bring them along!? The beauty of the engagement session is capturing the two of you in this great point of your lives and your dogs, no doubt, mean the world to you! And don’t worry if your dogs are hyper, shy or crazy because I am the dog whisperer!! TRUST ME! I have two dogs at home that drive me nuts and forever are straight crazy – but I am always able to snap a GREAT picture of them because of YEARS of practice! 😉 So feel free to bring along as many dogs as you have! I love them!

Even a prop as simple as a blanket does WONDERS for a shoot, especially a colorful one! If they had just been sitting on the beach it would have been nice but that pop of color adds so much to the photo, especially contrasting against his blue! It looks great!

The great thing about props is this is only what MY couples have used – there are endless ideas for what can be done! Some ideas that I did NOT show that my couples have used were the books the groom proposed with, skateboards and even food like popcorn and milkshakes! Super cute!! You can use anything that means something to the both of you… a special book, something geeky like lightsabers (um, I love Star Wars so I would LOVE this!), maybe wine or champagne and having a picnic. I will never say NO to a prop and no prop is too big or too small. Just like your wedding day, feel free to personalize and make your engagement session as unique as the two of you are together! 🙂 Can’t wait to see the magic and fun that my 2015 engagement sessions have in store!