If you’ve recently gotten engaged, you’re likely busy planning your big day. One of the best ways to show your love is an engagement photo shoot on or around Valentine’s Day, a holiday inspired by LOVE! If you desire to have an engagement photography shoot around Valentine’s Day, here are a few tips for planning it.

How to Plan a Valentine’s Day Inspired Engagement Shoot

1. Plan Your Outfits, Accessories and Backdrop

Bold red is the standard color for Valentine’s Day, so incorporate it into your outfits, your florals and your decor. One member of the couple might sport a res dress, red shoes, ruby colored lipstick or jewelry, or hold and arrangement of roses or red dahlias. Your partner may coordinate their outfits with a pop of red in their scarf or tie. Create eye-grabbing contrast by sporting black and white with a smidge of crimson.

Planning your outfits in advance of your engagement session gives you enough time to buy any accessories you might need.

2. Find a Creative Photographer

Valentine’s Day will be here before you know it, and professional wedding and engagement photographers will be booking quickly. Ask for recommendations from friends or family who have booked photographers for weddings, birthdays, or anniversaries. Browse their websites to look at their portfolios, set up appointments with your top three, and then select the best one for you and your partner. See how they shoot in low light as well as in broad daylight to confirm their talent. Read reviews about your photographer, as much can be learned between the lines.

3. Scout Your Winter Locations

The location for your engagement shoot can have personal significance to you, or it could be a snow-sprinkled winter location you are visiting for the first time. Before the day arrives, confirm that you won’t need any special permission to shoot in your chosen spot, such as the steps in front of a museum, the public gardens or on a bridge. If you’re planning to shoot outside, have a few backup indoor locations in case the weather is unsuitable for engagement photography.

Are you looking for a wedding and engagement photographer who is experienced and enthusiastic? Reach out to Karen Wise Photography in Brooklyn, NY. Highly reviewed Karen has more than 15 years of experience behind the camera, documenting weddings, engagement shoots, and lifestyle portraits throughout Manhattan, Brooklyn, the Hamptons, Westchester, California and Internationally. To book a Valentine’s engagement photography session, call (917) 539-9908 or visit her website to browse her portfolio.