A pre-wedding or engagement video shoot is a portrait session that takes place at any time before the wedding. The videographer might arrange with you to go to a special location when the forecast and light is going to be just right, and then work with you to create some beautiful footage that can either be created as an independent video or could be weaved into your main wedding film at a later point.
Here are a few reasons you might want to consider a pre-wedding or engagement shoot.
Get to know / get comfortable with your videographer
When your wedding day comes around, you’ll be spending all day with both a photographer and videographer following you around. It really helps to feel comfortable when it comes to doing portrait work with them, so it’s a great idea to start the ball rolling a bit earlier and do a more informal session so everyone can get to know each other.
You’ll get to know each other better, work out what works well for you as a couple and the professional will take note of this for your wedding day.
It also gives you a chance to experience what it’s like being photographed or filmed, and get some tips on posing, and just getting comfortable with the whole process.
Safety net for British weather
No one can control what the weather will be like on their wedding day. Not even that woman from Encanto (actually, I think she caused her own hurricane), so an engagement shoot can give you some beautiful footage shot in perfect light which could be used in your wedding video should the English weather live up to its reputation.
Use it as a service trial
Following working with a videographer at an engagement shoot, you’ll have a good idea what it’s like to work with that person, as well as being able to see what they produce from it. If this is far enough in advance of the wedding it could be useful to trial their services. If there’s some kind of incompatibility or you don’t like how they work or what the produce, you could at least end the contract for their services. More likely though, you’ll just find out how awesome they are, and have some amazing footage you can share with friends and family in the run up to the wedding.
It’s a brilliant thing to have!
Not many of us get the chance to have a beautiful film made of us capturing us in a stunning location with perfect lighting. It’s a fantastic thing to have for posterity. The nice thing about an engagement shoot is that you can just take your time. There’s no pressure other than the light fading. Since there’s just you and the videographer, there’s no requirement to juggle time between video and photo. The resulting film is a beautiful keepsake of your pre-wedding life.