Woohoo – you’re engaged! You’re busy celebrating and so excited about documenting this milestone in your life! Perhaps you’ve already even done your engagement session at this point. And now you’re sitting at home, scrolling through your gallery of engagement images. Maybe you’ve posted a couple on social media to celebrate, but now you find yourself sitting there thinking: “Okay, but now what do I DO with my engagement photos?”

Well, if you’re looking for some inspiration or maybe some additional reasons as to why you should take engagement images in the first place: you’re in the right place! Today I’ll be sharing some of my favorite and unique ways to use your engagement images!

7 Unique Ways to Use Your Engagement Images

1) Save the Dates

The most popular option would be to use your images for your Save the Dates. While invitations tend to be more ornate and match the theme of your wedding, Save the Dates are a great way to add some personality and excitement into your wedding stationery!

There are so many great websites for this – my personal favorite is Minted! They have so many beautiful and elegant designs and I’m always impressed with their quality. I even use them for my annual Christmas card! (* plus they usually always have some great deals going on – so keep an eye out for those!)

2) Decorating Your Reception

Another really popular option is to print out images to place around your cocktail hour and your reception to further personalize your decor!

Some specific examples I’ve seen:

• Smaller framed images placed throughout the cocktail area, gift table, etc
• Prints placed on each reception table (sometimes even being used as the backdrop for the table number as well)
• A collage of images on a wall that shows the evolution of your love story – leading up to and including your engagement
• A projected slideshow that showcases your love story

3) Welcome Sign

Placing a large print at the entrance to your ceremony or reception space is always a beautiful idea! It adds that extra wow factor and touch of personalization that also gets your friends and family even more excited heading into your wedding day! I’ve seen couples add graphics and text to the image, welcoming their guests to their wedding. I’ve also had couples simply put the image on display and let it do all the talking. Either way, it’s always a big hit!

4) Seating Chart

Another unique way I’ve seen images used is as a backdrop to your seating chart! There are so many fun and unique ways to let your guests know which table they’ll be sitting at. Perhaps I’ll do another blog one day about all of the unique ways I’ve seen this done. But for today, I want to highlight this option! Again, it’s a far more personalized way to design it rather than simply displaying them on a simple white piece of paper.

5) Decorate Your Home

They say we cover our walls with and put on display the things we love most. So, why wouldn’t that include artwork of the people we love most? There is something pretty special about going about your day and catching a glimpse of the images on your wall. In that moment, regardless of the mood you may be in or the day you may have had; that image will transport you back to that moment and will fill you with warmth and remind you of what’s most important. It is a beautiful reminder and an option I recommend highly!

6) Heirloom Album

I want to round this out with my very favorite thing to do with engagement images and the one I think gets overlooked the most: printing them in a beautiful heirloom album. Here’s the deal, when we think of heirloom albums and creating a legacy to pass down – we often think immediately of the wedding album. And while that is a monumental moment in our lives and rightfully deserves to be documented and preserved. So do the other milestone’s in our lives! And getting engaged is a huge one! One of the major benefits of an engagement session is that – while the wedding is specifically documenting your commitment to one another and the merging of your families – the engagement session can really focus on documenting and celebrating the two of you and your life together up to this point!

Take a minute to imagine this… 30 years from now, you’re at home and sitting on the couch with your spouse. You’re snuggled up together and are flipping through old albums, reminiscing about “the old days” and re-experiencing all the feels. You grab your engagement album, open it up, and are immediately transported back 30 years… back to the beginning days of your relationship… what do you see?

Who were you? What was your life together like at this point? What were your favorite things to do? Was this a silly or adventurous time in your life? Were you both fashionistas, did you laugh a lot, were you outdoorsy, did you love to picnic in the park and watch the stars together? Who were you and what did this period in your life look like?

THAT is what your engagement images should be all about.

And that, as a DFW engagement photographer, is what I want you to remember when you’re looking back through your images and re-living these precious memories or sharing the story of your unique love story. And what better way to do that than through a beautiful album that will preserve your memories for generations? That’s why this is my favorite option and one that I, unfortunately, think is overlooked the most.

Need help designing your heirloom album? I’d be honored to help you create something beautiful, let’s chat!

7) Guest Book

This is a slight variation from the heirloom album idea and is meant to be placed around the entrance of your reception space. With all the same benefits and reasonings as above, one added bonus of designing your album as a guest book (specifically by leaving additional blank space or pages around your images) is that you can also have your friends and family leave sweet messages for you. So, as you’re re-visiting your memories, you also have these beautiful little notes from all your loved ones. You can also include prompts on a few pages to help with inspiration on what to write in your book.

Some prompt ideas:

• Leave your well-wishes for us below!
• What’s your best marriage advice below?
• Share your favorite memory with us:
• What do you predict life will look like for us in __ years?

(Important note: when choosing pens/markers for your guest book (especially if you are investing in a quality heirloom album) it is important to choose ones that are archival, acid-free, and fast-drying. Otherwise, you run the risk of it smearing or bleeding through, and also “yellowing” with age and ruining the page in time. All of my guest books come with the appropriate writing tools so that my clients never have to worry about accidentally damaging their books!)

I hope you found these suggestions for unique ways to use your engagement images helpful!

If there’s anything else you’d like more information on, please don’t hesitate to reach out. I’d love to help answer any further questions! Until then, happy planning!

Also, if you like this post about 7 unique ways to use your engagement images, be sure to check out even more wedding tips HERE!