E + R booked the San Antonio Botanical Gardens for their wedding reception next year. That’s why they decided to do their engagement session at the Botanical Gardens. Typically, there’s an additional photography fee of $195 plus the entrance fee to take photos at the gardens. But for this session we got a free pass! (perks of having your wedding at the San Antonio Botanical Gardens I guess). Since we did this engagement session at the beginning of the Texas summer season, here are a couple of tips to help you beat the Texas heat for your engagement session

Session Tips: What to Bring?

Here are some things you might want to consider bringing to your engagement session:

1. Hydroflask/stanley/owala filled with cold iced water – water breaks are a must!
2. Comfortable shoes/sandals to change into, if wearing heels – last thing you want is painful blisters after your session.
3. Handheld Fan – not necessary, but it’s nice to have.

Let’s talk about this botanical gardens engagement session, shall we?

This spot served as our “stomping ground.” It’s located centrally, perfect for cooling off and bathroom breaks. Here we started with what I like to call “warm-up” shots. Usually, warm-up shots comprise of movements such as “walking away from me” and “walking towards me.” Once I have my couples warmed up, that’s when I throw in a couple of candidly natural poses. During shoots I love directing couples by directing their movements to beautifully capture the love that they have for each other.

Here’s a great example of both posed and candidly directed images. For these photos I prompted my clients to “walk like y’all are drunk at 2am” or “walk towards me while bumping at the hip at every couple of steps” this prompts usually makes my couples laugh which opens up an opportunity to capture them in their happy mode candidly.

In these photos, I posed my clients by telling them to “kiss her as she arches her back, prevent her from falling backwards” (left photo). For the photo on the right, I simply told my clients to “look at each other, and grab his face”

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Finally, can I just say? I love it when my couples bring two outfits for their engagement session. It gives their gallery so much variety and more options to choose from!

If this is the engagement session you are looking for and love my editing style, feel free to reach out! Let’s chat here! To see more of my works, visit my portfolio and the rest of my blog.