When it comes to your summer engagement photos, you have a couple of options.

You can:

1. Treat it like an errand that needs done simply for the sake of the save the dates. 
2. Treat it like a kind of weird, really really beautiful little chapter of your love story. 

Summer engagement photos happen in that stretch of time where you already know full well who your person is, but you haven’t stood in front of everyone you love and said so yet. Maybe the Insta grid has made it public information, but you’re still technically just the two of you, moving through the world with this semi-secret tucked in your back pocket.

I hope you don’t mind me saying it to you straight, but that deserves a heck of a lot better than a checklist mentality and a fiancé behaving like he’s never held a human hand before. 

Something as sentimental as that deserves a Nancy Meyers kind of memory: one that comes rushing back every time you pass that trail or hear that song; every time you smell lake water in July or bring up that one time you willingly stepped into a frigid Minnesota lake in August because some nostalgia enthusiast with a camera told you it would be worth it.

(For the record, it will be.)

So if you’d rather come away from your summer engagement photos with something that feels like a core memory instead of a completed task that felt like obligation personified, here’s are a few engagement shoot ideas that will help turn this whole thing into something worth remembering.

Realizing your vibe is a little less The Notebook canoe scene and a little more Something’s Gotta Give meets old-money summer in Saint Paul? I have just the thing. Pop over to my guide on Saint Paul engagement photo locations with timeless charm… then come right back, because no one likes a cliffhanger.

1. Let yourselves act a little less adult than usual.

One of the greatest scams of adulthood is the idea that once you’re engaged (or even past the age of eighteen), you now need to behave with constant grace and emotional composure.

Respectfully… says who?

You knew about love long before you knew anything useful about life—before taxes, before wedding vendor contracts, before feeling obligated to have an opinion about grout colors and interest rates.

There was a time when love looked like chasing someone around the playground, pretending to be subtle about your not-that-secret crush, holding hands like your life depended on it, and being casually obsessed with someone after three conversations.

That none-the-wiser version of you still knows a thing or two about a thing or two. 

Take that and run. Let yourself be a little bit of a kid about things during your summer engagement photos.

Run clumsily. Splash each other. Let him spin you while fearing for your life. Laugh so hard that you snort a little bit. Be a little ridiculous and a lot flirty. Be so visibly into each other that you don’t even hear me yelling, ‘Oh my gosh, that’s darling’ from somewhere behind a tree.

Play photographs far better than perfection or poise ever will.

Case in point? Natalie and Brandon could not stop giggling during their summer engagement photos, no matter how hard they tried to pull it together. They started in a canoe, ended jumping off the dock, and looked like two people who genuinely enjoy existing in the same vicinity the entire time—all because they said ‘to heck with adulthood’ and embraced fun.

Elite material.

2. Go somewhere your love already knows. 

If you’re hunting for engagement shoot ideas, start with location.

I cannot stress enough that meaningful will beat pretty every single time.

Pretty is nice. We like pretty. Pretty can absolutely play a part. But meaningful has legs.

The forest trail where it feels like you’ve spent at least one-third of your relationship talking in circles. The family cabin that has seen three generations of cannonballs and coffee on the dock. The Lake Superior shoreline you make a point to include in date night because it somehow resets your nervous system for free.

Places like that come with built-in magic. You don’t have to invent chemistry or pretend to be sentimental in some random patch of grass simply because Pinterest claimed it would photograph well. 

You can rely on these heirloom places to come with complimentary emotion, simply because they’ve been keeping part of your story safe for all this time.

For example, Kenzie and Gavin chose the trail where they had their first date. 

I mean, did Kenzie arrive on that first date with her location shared to her mom and sister? Yes. Did she carry a healthy amount of skepticism because what kind of man suggests a secluded trail for date number one? Very much yes.

But, look at them now. Kenzie survived. Gavin got the girl. The trail opened up into a gorgeous river spot that they had no way of knowing would be the location for their future summer engagement photos. Romance prevailed. 

And now, that place holds two core memories instead of one. 

That, girlies, is how a location becomes legacy.

3. End the session in the water. 

I’m being so serious when I say that, if there is water nearby and we can do it safely, I am going to become incredibly persuasive.

In fact, I’m always a little shocked by how quickly some couples trust me. One minute they’re dry on shore, asking what to do with their hands. Twenty minutes later they’re fully soaked, flirting through light seaweed complaints, laughing like kids, and forgetting hair and makeup ever existed.

Water is weirdly magical in how it brings your summer engagement photos to another level, removing self-consciousness almost immediately. Once lake water is involved (it is Minnesota, after all), you’re no longer interested in posing. 

You’re too busy living.

Taylor and Trey ended their own summer engagement photos in Lake Superior, which sits at a temperature somewhere between self-loathing and perseverance. 

Trey went all the way in and emerged looking like some sort of freshwater action hero. Taylor looked at him like she had just discovered he existed.

No one could have storyboarded that.

Water gives us movement, laughter, intimacy, spontaneity, and the immediate death of trying too hard. 

Of all the engagement shoot ideas I could hand you, ending the session in the water is one I will defend with my life. 

4. Let your relationship spill the beans a little bit in your summer engagement photos.

Some couples show up to their summer engagement photos convinced they want moody, serious, editorial photos. Then they proceed to spend the whole session cracking up. (Love that for them.)

Others think they’re so totally not serious and end up having these unsuspecting little pauses between them that make me shut up faster than you can say, ‘Nancy Meyers aesthetic’ (Also love that for them.)

I don’t get overly attached to a vibe before showing up to a session, and neither should you.

Your relationship will make its presence known, if we let it.

Taylor and Trey are a classic example of this. They thought they might want some more serious images. Totally fair, and we got those, too. But those two were so playful, so naturally giggly, so obviously delighted by one another that the truth came out immediately.

And the truth was joy. So joy is exactly what we photographed.

When couples get fully present with each other, I almost forget where the line is between the movie and real life. I just feel lucky to witness something unfolding in real time.

5. Don’t lose sight of the chapter you’re in.

Engagement photos are not just “before wedding” photos.

They are before-marriage photos.

Before husband and wife. Before the ‘to have and to hold’. Before the never-ending pile of handwritten thank-you cards. Before people start asking invasive questions about babies at brunch.

You are standing in a split-second of time between one version of life and the next.

(Kind of a big deal, don’t you think?)

Natalie and Brandon did their summer engagement photos the night before their wedding because they were flying in from Utah for a wedding at her Minnesota family cabin (see above point about location and meaning, please and thanks). 

Because weather hates to be a supporting character, rain changed the original plan. So we pivoted and went full water session about it. 

And now Natalie and Brandon have photos from the final night before saying ‘I do,’ taken at an heirloom kind of place with family history written all over it. 

That kind of memory compounds in value over time.

TLDR? If you want summer engagement photos that feel like something (many somethings, in fact):

(And want to skip the engagement shoot ideas that feel painfully generic.)

Choose the location with a backstory. 

Say yes when I shrug and point towards the shoreline. 

Laugh as much as you possibly can. 

Trust the version of your love that shows up on the day you scheduled your session, even if it’s a different one than you thought would make an appearance.

And please, for the love of all things nostalgic, ditch the perfectionism and just be in the moment. I want your grandkids flipping through these photos someday thinking, “Wow, they were really living.”

You bring your love story and the willingness to make it public for an hour. I’ll handle the rest. 

And if you’re wanting engagement photos that feel like the pivotal rom-com scene where everybody in the theater collectively knows they’re end game material, give this post a read ASAP.