Alex and Ryan Fun Engagement Session at Craggy Gardens | Sean Szitas Photography | 7.18.23

Engagement photos are the best photos!

I’ve never done an official blog post about engagement sessions before, approaching them from a teaching point of view to help future clients and folks alike get a better idea of what to expect when you’re expecting an engagement session soon. First off, I completely relate to the anxiety and awkwardness of having your photo taken, being put in weird poses and told to kiss your partner a thousand times while someone else takes photos of it over and over again. Stripping down what an engagement session entails does make it sound a little weird but looking at it as an opportunity to

1. To be more comfortable in front of the camera

2. To go on an adventure with your partner (who doesn’t love a good adventure??)

3. Get to know your photographer better before your wedding and lastly,

4. Have fun!

Then it doesn’t seem so weird or outside your comfort zone. Almost every client I’ve had in the past has relied to me that they’ve never had their photos taken professionally before and that they are a bit awkward but as the session goes on they find themselves more at ease when being photographed and having fun at the same time! Being able to bring people out of their shell and relax and give them beautiful photos of themselves that they can enjoy is what makes my job the best!

Alex & Ryan – Craggy Gardens Engagement Session

For Alex and Ryan’s engagement session they wanted to incorporate hiking and the gorgeous mountains here in Western North Carolina in their session since they are both from this area. While they are many great mountain views in and around the Asheville area typically you have to drive out along the Blue Ridge Parkway to get the mountaintop views and most are anywhere between 30 minutes to 1 hour along the Parkway. Thankfully there are several access points to the Blue Ridge Parkway in Asheville making it super accessible anywhere in the city for your engagement session.

While they are many, many options and places to choose from along the Blue Ridge Parkway for your engagement session most of it depends on many factors outside of just wanting to have mountains in the background. The biggest factor would be how much you are willing to hike to get to the perfect spot, most hikes are only 10 – 15 minutes to reach the top while others can be longer and more difficult to hike so it’s good to double check with your photographer or do the research about the trail you want to do before your session.

Craggy Gardens provides you with several different trails that range in length and intensity, so no matter your experience with hiking or desire to hike at all you will have those gorgeous mountains in the background! A great starting point for your session at Craggy Gardens is to start at the visitor center that’s right off the Blue Ridge Parkway with ample parking and take the side trail to the left of the visitor center, the trail is canopied with gorgeous, gnarly mountain laurels and takes you up mountain for even more gorgeous views!

What to wear for your engagement session

This is what I tell clients before any session when deciding on what to wear because I know picking the perfect outfit that not only makes you feel good and comfortable but also complements your partner’s outfit as well.

• Don’t be too matchy matchy with you and your partner’s outfits.

  • This means don’t both wear white tops and jeans or similar colors, both wearing pants is fine. Matchy matchy but you can still complement each other, with Ryan and Alex’s outfit choices I liked how Ryan had the darker colored top with light colored pants and Alex wore a light colored top with darker colored pants — a perfect way to complement each other without it being to obvious.

• Semi formal / semi causal : If you are doing two outfits it’s good to do one that’s a tad more formal and the other more casual.

  • Couples that have their engagement session at places such as the Biltmore Estate in Asheville, North Carolina tend to go a more formal route with their clothing options because it pairs well with the location. For locations like Craggy Gardens having a more causal outfit still fits the scene, wearing shorts or a nice t-shirt wouldn’t too out of place. However, if you want to wear a formal outfit, like a dress or a sports jacket, that still works at locations such as Craggy Gardens, people have elopements all over the Blue Ridge Parkway but you’ll have to consider hiking and walking in those outifts or making arrangements to change once you are at the location.

• Avoid patterns and certain colors

  • Stripes, vertical or horizontal, don’t photograph well and usually don’t complement the body well either, most busy patterns also can distract in photos or not photograph well. Colors that I tell clients to avoid is anything neon or super vivid like reds, yellows, and overall oranges — the biggest concern is the color bounce onto your skin in photos that can give your skin tone a totally different shade.

  • Colors that photograph well: blues, purples, grays, mustard yellow, olive green, burgundy, white, off-whites, black.

• Bring extra options and shoes!

  • Self-explanatory but I always tell clients to bring options if they can’t decide and especially if we are hiking to bring shoes to hike in and shoes you want to be photographed in!