Cooler temperatures, lovely warm light and soon-to-change-color trees can only mean one thing. It’s engagement season! And that means people getting engaged and getting their engagement pictures done. I have quite a few engagement sessions coming up and I’ve gotten lots of questions about what to wear. I think it deserves its own blog post, no?

Stay away from match-matchy, but instead aim to coordinate.

You know those old-school family portraits where the whole family is wearing a white shirt and the exact same acid-wash jeans? Let’s stay away from that look for your engagement photos. Don’t feel like you both have to wear red, for example, instead maybe he wears red in his checkered button-down shirt while she wears gray and yellow and pulls the red into her details. The goal is to coordinate, instead of trying to match each other perfectly. This creates more visual interest. Take a look at a recent J.Crew catalog to see what I mean.

Pile on the layers and accessories!

Talk about adding visual interest. A scarf? Love it. A chunky necklace? Love that too. These things photograph well because you’re dressing up an otherwise normal outfit with interesting statement pieces. Plus I love to shoot details and these things are perfect for that. Again, check out a J.Crew or Anthropologie catalog for inspiration.

Be comfortable and be you.

I can talk about accessorizing all I want, but if you don’t feel comfortable putting on a big necklace, that’s OK! The most important thing is to feel good in your own skin (and clothes). I generally tell my couples that if they want to do an outfit change, they should plan on doing one casual and one dressy outfit. But guess what? If you’re a casual couple that likes to watch football and never gets dressed up, you can do two casual outfits! The most important thing to me is photographing you in your element because that’s what engagement sessions are about. Telling your story.

Stay away from distracting logos.

That graphic T-shirt you have hanging in your closet should probably stay there for the engagement session. Unfortunately, logos are distracting and just don’t photograph well. If you both love the Indians, however, and want to document that, by all means, let’s do some photos of you in your jerseys. But the general rule of thumb is to leave logo-laden clothes at home.

Do your wedding makeup trial run before your engagement session.

Why get all dolled up just to go back home again? Plan your makeup trial run for your engagement photo day! I don’t necessarily tell brides that they should go overboard on their makeup for engagement photos, but professionally done makeup is always a good thing. And since you’re all dressed up anyways, you might as well make a date night out of the whole experience!