Have you heard about ‘couple’s boudoir’ or ‘intimate couple sessions’? They’re nothing new, although the media has recently been batting them around as a crazy new trend in wedding photography! Yet intimate couple sessions have been going on for years and can create some of the most special, beautiful and emotional photos of you and your beau.
Today I wanted to chat to photographer Dustin Cantrell, who specialises in these kinds of photo shoots, to ask his advice on doing one. It was also a good excuse to share some of his gorgeous photography with you!
Why would a couple want to have an intimate photo session?
The goal of an intimate session is to capture your connection and love you feel for your partner. Shooting the session in your home allows intimacy to occur. In the past (and still for lots of couples) the point of a couple session, also known as an engagement shoot, was to capture a nice photo for something like Save the Dates, or to display at their wedding. However lots of couples don’t have engagement photos done at all because it’s just another thing on the checklist of things to do in preparation for their wedding.
With an intimate session, it’s just about the two of you. You are probably not going to send cards out to your guests with these photos on so you are able to really cherish the beginning of your lives together with no cheesiness is involved (save the date signs, fake picnics, tandem bicycle riding). Years down the road you don’t want photos to remember the time you staged or posed for photos that weren’t capturing the real you, you’re much more likely to want to look back and see who you really were.
This type of session doesn’t have to replace your engagement shoot though. An intimate photo shoot can be part of your engagement photos. You can start or end the session with some intimate photos at your place. Intimate sessions can be for newlyweds, anniversaries, a way to take reconnect with your partner.
