What To Wear For Engagement/Couple Photos

Congratulations! You are getting married! Engagement sessions are a perfect time to kick off such a special milestone and a great way to get to know the wedding photographer you chose as well! However, before an engagement session, we always have couples ask us: “what do we wear for the engagement session”? We as photographers have a secret to knowing what does well. So let’s dig into what works best!

Color theory goes a long way!

Remember in elementary school art class, there would be these color wheels? These little wheels are the secret to any beautiful portrait! Different colors would give different feelings. Rather than focusing on matching, focus on color coordinating! We recommend 3 or less colors for your outfit.

Complementary Outfits

• Complementary outfits create the strongest contrast for colors! These are known as “opposite colors”. These often will make the portraits pop! Complementary outfits are also the most fun! If you want more muted colors, pastel complementary colors are also another way to go! This year the lilac and pastel yellow are super popular! Another good one is sage green and pastel pink! Complementary colors also pair amazingly with black and white, so if you wanted to add that to the palate, that would work as well!

Monochrome Outfits

• There are two scenarios for monochrome outfits: matching with the environment or complementary to the environment! Monochrome outfits normally feel coordinated and artist! Usually they look amazing next to nature, such as flower fields, the coast or mountains.

• Matching with the environment gives a more blended soft look. Complementary outfits pop more and give a stronger passionate feeling.

Analogous Outfits

• These outfits often focus on either warm tones or cool tone outfits! If you wear a warm tone outfit during a sunset or fall season, you will look more integrated into the environment. For these outfits, we strongly recommend having less than 3 colors as it can get distracting with more than 3 colors. Cool toned outfits are more often worn during sunset, blue hour and beach photoshoots!

Formal or Non-formal?

This purely depends on where you are getting the engagement photos taken! Normally, semi-formal attire is great for most situations. But if you are going for wedding dress pictures, we recommend having both parties match in the level of formality.

Below are some creative engagement sessions versus formal engagement sessions

Ontario Place Sunset Photos

Boat Engagement Photos

Botanic Garden Wedding Dress Engagement photo

We have done a range of styles, if you need inspiration, feel free to reach out for example galleries!

Accessories?

I always recommend wearing some jewelry to finish off your outfit! A necklace or earrings help bring out dimensions! For the guys, you can wear a nice watch or even a hat would look great!

Makeup?

Your engagement session might also be a good time to test makeup for your special day! Always bring some backup lip gloss, that’s normally one thing that adds a lot to the photos!

You can always check with your photographer for more inspiration or for another opinion! What outfit will you be wearing for your engagement photos?