Why do people have pre-wedding shoots?

We're having a prewedding shoot as it's included in our photography package....

Both me and H2B hate having our photos taken and I'm extremely self conscious on camera so it will do us good to work with our photographer to find comfortable 'poses' and see what we look like.

Titally jnderstand people not getting or liking the idea and to be fair we wouldn't be having one if it wasn't already part of the pack we chose but hey, it may help the nerves lol!

Not having an engagement shoot is one of my few wedding regrets, actually. The only nice photos of my husband and I are from our wedding day, and while a lot of them are informal candids throughout the day and amazing, I do wish we had some relaxed romp-in-the-woods-with-the-dog photos. At the time I was obsessed with budget and I negotiated cost our photographer by asking him if we could chop up his package and just have the 8 hours of shots and a disc of images.

Also, in some of our photos from the wedding day I can see that we look a little uncomfortable in front of the camera. Our photographer was amazing, friendly, and we got on really well with him, he made everyone feel at ease, but I can still see H's stiff pose or my slightly manic smile in a few shots. The best photos of us were definitely not the staged ones, and I think it has a lot to do with neither of us ever having been in front of a professional photographer before.

Completely understand, so don't apologise!

Having not had a couple shoot on our actual wedding day, it was our biggest regret. So recently, for our fifth wedding anniversary we went for a couple shoot. It was actually a lot more fun than we thought. I wish when we got married we had a pre wedding shoot and also had the full works photography wise on the wedding day. It is why we live for doing this for other couples! It's so lovely to look back on that time. Even being a photographer, I hate having my own picture taken. But planning your wedding and getting married is such a lovely time to treasure. Five years on you will be wishing you could do it all over again because that time just goes so quick!

From a pre wedding point of view, you get used to seeing how your photographer works, as well as what you feel comfortable doing in front of the camera. We tend to find that couples prefer to do these shoots about a year before the wedding. The photos are often used for save the date cards or invitations. During any couple shoot, be it pre wedding or on the wedding day, we work off a couples natural chemistry and have found that couples actually end up really enjoying the pre wedding shoot as you learn that it's not so scary being in front of the camera. As long as you are enjoying yourself, which we will make sure you are, this shows in the pictures! On the wedding day there will be so much going on that there won't be as much time to play with.

A wedding is supposed to be cheesy (at least a little) embrace it ?