What do we wear during an engagement session? 

Where are we shooting? This should be your first thought when deciding what to wear. Choose an appropriate outfit for the occasion and something that suits your personality while keeping in mind the weather. Feel free to take a look through our galleries to get ideas on what this all means. Outfits are almost more important than the location we are photographing in! What you wear makes you stand out from where you are, just as much as it can make you blend in. We recommend staying away from the colors blue, purple and Green.

Keep the location & season in mind. Choose an outfit that you feel comfortable and confident in. It is also important to wear colors or tones that will separate you from the background you are up against. Keep patterns to a minimum and combine them with solid colors. If we are going hiking to get to a location, don't wear high heels.
*For example Don't wear dark green if your session will be in a forest.
Yellows, Whites, Reds, Cream colors always look good in a woodsy environment.
Don’t wear bright yellow or orange in a golden field during sunset… unless you prefer to just blend in and be a floating head.

i booked our wedding, when do i plan our complimentary engagement session?

Thank you for booking with us and trusting us with your wedding date! A good rule of thumb is to book your session 2-3 months before you anticipate having it! It could be hard to fit you into the schedule on a week or two notice due to how far our couples book with us! Be aware of the time of year you are booking for. Weather that is not ideal, may hinder our ability to capture the session you have envisioned for so long, in the best way possible.

What if we don’t use the engagement session or don’t need one?

That is a fantastic question! Any engagement session booked within a wedding package is deemed as complimentary, so good news there is that you are not being charged! The main reason we do this is so that we have a chance to work with you before the wedding date! So if you live out of town or the stars don’t align in scheduling? No need to panic, it was free and carries no monetary value!

What do i do if i get sick before my session?

We understand! Its not like you ever PLAN to get sick, and we understand that life happens! So if in fact life happens, we allow you to reschedule your session one time with 24 hours notice. If you miss the second session, you need to pay a full engagement session price to get another one scheduled.

What is a photographers job?

Great question! The job of being a photographer can be mixed up with many different avenues within the wedding industry. As a photographer it is our job to capture our perspective of what you hire us for. When someone hires a photographer that means that person feels that the perspective the photographer has is in line with their vision for their day! Some would say we are wizards, but we are not gods. If someones day is dark and moody, it is our job to capture that and edit the day to fit that and document it. We can not edit a dark and moody day “light and airy”, We are not gods. Some people on the wedding day feel as if the photographers job is to guide the day along and tell people when and where they need to be… That would be false, that is the job of a coordinator on a wedding day for example! As photographers we do tend to fall into some of those roles, not by choice, but out of necessity for our couples. So that is a myth that ill go ahead and break right here. We photograph, edit, and deliver. We do give advice on timelines and what we have seen work and not work along our paths in industries we work within. With that being said, good photographer knows timelines inside and out, can make up time that falls behind on someones special day (within reason). A photographer is with you usually more on a wedding day than your fiance even is! So choosing the right person for the job is very important! With over 400+ weddings under my belt in my career, these are just some of the reasons brides hire and trust us to capture their special day. Because we are real, consistent, and we deliver!!

What happens if the weather is bad for my engagement session?

Considering we live in the beautiful pacific northwest, you are probably familiar with the unpredictable weather that may happen from time to time, and that we actually have seasons, unlike some southern states you may have just moved here from.
In these situations, You may hear from us asking if you would like to reschedule. If that situation does arise? Its is simply due to the fact that our equipment may not be able to handle the conditions presenting themselves that day. There may also be times where it is unsafe for us to travel to the specific location you had your heart set on (This can happen during winter sessions). If it is unsafe for travel, we reserve the right to cancel the session even at a moments notice. This is to ensure the safety of everyone involved. Your selves and the photographers/videographers. We will not count that engagement session as something you canceled as covered in the section above. Trust us, we take our jobs very seriously and all lives involved. Its a bummer, but from time to time it happens.

How long until i get my photos or video? 

For Weddings - We tend to quote a timeline of 6-8 weeks but they can take up to 90 days after the wedding (give or take a few days) We do offer 2 week turn around add ons for packages and that is $1,000. We make sure to work countless hours on every single wedding we photograph/video and give the same level of treatment for every client to make sure that their photos will remain timeless and that our editing represents the style of their day. With this in mind we do understand that you will be excited to see your wedding photos, just as much as we are excited to show you, I know we live in a very instant world but be patient, good things take time :)

For Engagement Sessions- We Quote 2-3 weeks turn around on editing these. The reason why it is a shorter time frame than editing a wedding? Well because there are less photos to edit from an engagement session.

How long should i plan for family photos at my wedding?

1. You should allow for 2 1/2 mins Per family photo combination.

2. Dedicate one person from each of your families to getting family members together and putting them into the combinations you would like. (we take care of posing) Since we do not know all of your extended families personally, It would take us longer than you would like us to spend trying to track everyone down. Family photos can be one of the most stressful situations for a couple on their wedding day. And the last thing you want to do is be finding them yourselves haha! So pick two people who are responsible, and who can take charge for this. If you follow these simple steps I have outlined, your family photos will be a breeze!

timeline tips for your wedding!

When do we need your timeline by? We need your timeline no later than 2 weeks before your wedding date so no need to stress right now!

Always allow time for unplanned events! Although you have planned and planned for this special day, things happen. Hair and makeup can run over just a little bit, your guests might get stuck in traffic which might push your ceremony back a few mins, The best man left the rings in his hotel room? Well we have seen it all! An extra 5-10 mins here and there can relieve so much last min unneeded stress.

Do you need a day of coordinator? Although you may feel like your best friend is the most organized person in the entire world… You would be surprised how many times we have seen that situation not work as well as intended. Despite having been a part of literally countless weddings, photographers and videographers should not be relied on as day of coordinators or wedding planners. We unfortunately do not have all of the qualifications to be considered for that position and need to strictly remain doing the job you hired us to do. Photography/Videography With that being said, do you need one? We recommend at least consulting with a few to see if having one is the right thing for you and your special day. If it was my wedding i would personally have do my best to have one, and no i’m not getting paid to say this haha!

How do I write a timeline? Well this is where your Day of coordinator would come in handy ;)
Haha all jokes aside writing a timeline is very simple. Below i will give you an outline of how long we suggest you allow for different parts of the day. After the Ceremony its all up to you! (If you are able to plan sunset portraits of the two of you, plan them around..you guessed it! Sunset! HAHA)

Hair and Makeup Photos - 20mins-30mins (Have the makeup artist and hair person seat/position you up facing a window about 5-6 feet away from that window, they usually know this already though)
Detail photos- (Dress, Flowers, Rings, Etc) 30mins-40mins. Have your details all organized in one location and ready to go!
Groom Getting Ready Photos- (Depending on location) 15mins
Putting on the dress-(Depending on the Dress) 15mins-25mins
First look Photos- (If you are doing one) 25mins
Bridal Party Photos- (For a bridal party of 5 on each side) 30mins+
Family Photos- 2 1/2 mins per family photo combination (See the section above)
If you hired us for videography, the same applies! But if you are doing a first look allow an extra 10mins.

Do you need a dedicated seat the day of my wedding for dinner?

Well thank you for asking! But no we do not! All we require is a hot meal (Not a boxed meal, some caterers offer this…Its a dinner roll and a bag of chips that wouldn’t feed a small child hahaha) We suggest our vendors should be served or go through the buffet line following the bridal party. This ensures we will be done eating in time for speeches to start and the rest of your evening!

Wedding planning myths you should be ignoring!

So you’re about to start planning your big day! As you may already know, there’s a lot of advice out there for new brides, so much so that it can be difficult to decide what advice to take and what to ignore.

If you’re feeling a bit overwhelmed with all of the advice you’ve been reading and receiving, here are a few wedding planning myths that you can definitely toss aside.

• A talented friend is exactly the same as a professional. This particular myth is especially relevant when it comes to choosing a photographer. Just because you have a friend who takes amazing holiday photos, doesn’t mean they’re prepared or skilled enough to capture your wedding day. Please note We are photographers, Not wedding planners or day of planners and do not write your timeline for you. It is important that you have someone at your wedding to keep things on schedule. We are not that person. Our job is to document your special day. The more time we take away from the focus of why we are there. The less gets captured.

• Every detail needs to be perfect. If you would prefer to not drive yourself mad before your wedding day, leave perfection at the door. Your wedding doesn’t need to be Pinterest perfect in order for it to be special and memorable.

You went to their wedding so they should be invited to yours. There is absolutely no rule that says you have to invite every single person that invited you to their wedding. This is your day and your budget so choose your guests wisely.

you can photoshop that out right?

For a lot of things? YES! But for somethings…No. The reason being is that photoshop is a super magical software! But not as magical as some might think! For certain situations we are totally willing to. For others it just simply just would not work. We can not add detail back where there wasn’t any, we cant photoshop items overlapping certain areas of peoples bodies or heads and faces. We can not photoshop your brother/sisters girlfriend out of the family photos because they broke up lol. So plan ahead for a separate photograph possibly without that person in the combination. :)
If the request is something we deem to be reasonable, we will gladly take care of that. We also cover a lot of this within the contract you signed. For more information please refer to the contract. Please note that we do not “photoshop “ all of your wedding photos, and sometimes we dont even open that software for any of them. The term “photoshopping” has been adapted as an over all term for photo editing and retouching, which is also confused with what photographers do. We retouch coloring. Whitening teeth in 450+ photos is not something within anyones purchased package.

How does picking a song for a wedding video happen?

That is a fantastic question! We use royalty free music to create the cinematic feel to your wedding videos. We will not use copyrighted material, under any circumstance. We will send you options or to a service platform we use to license songs from. They are much better than songs that have lyrics over them. Trust us. The last thing you want is your wedding video you waited for to be taken down off the internet or to get fined for using copyright material. And we don’t want that for you either.

(if you have seen a wedding video on our site that has popular music to it, the couple in the video had payed a licensing fee to us, so that we could pay the record label to use it. These fees are hundreds of dollars.)

Why cant i get ahold of my photographer at 2am or on weekends?

As much as you are probably thinking to yourself “This is a no brainer!” Well lets just say we like to consider this a frequently asked question haha! We have office hours for the same reason everyone has days off of work and times they clock out…
To keep a healthy work/life balance! :) Although you may have weekends off of work, weekends are the time that we tend to be the busiest. We try to make sure we stay in the office until 6:30pm so we can make sure people have time to contact us after they get off of work. You can feel free to text or call us but just know we may not get it until the morning. Also note that on weekend days we may be unreachable because either we are at weddings, or have a rare day off and will be doing things that don’t involve work.
You might find nights that you are laying awake contemplating all of those “what if” or “what about this” scenarios and can sometimes freak yourself out! Well thats normal, but probably not the time to reach for your phone to text your photographer lol.

What do i suggest you do? Well most of us have awesome smart phones with note pads and apps for reminders. They should be your best friend when planning your special day! Make notes on questions you would like to ask us or refer to this page to see if the answer might be right here! When sending over questions it helps save time for yourself if you compile a list of questions to ask and then send that over. As opposed to sending over one question every other week for 52 weeks lol. For this i suggest using email so its easy to go back and scroll through.
You can email your questions to robbie@robbienegrinphotography.com
Our office hours are Monday-Friday 9:00am-6:30PM PST
We typically have weddings every Friday, Saturday & Sunday
If you are trying to reach us during those times and are not getting a response we may either be out on a photoshoot, at a wedding, or simply have the music blasting in the studio editing away at photos! Don’t Panic, as soon as we see your message we will get back to you right away!