Welcome to this photographer’s guide to including your dog in your engagement photos! Let’s look at some steps you can take to prep your dog, and yourselves, so that your engagement session goes without a hitch!

Kylie and Carson’s little family is so supremely sweet, and I’m beyond stoked to have the privilege of covering photo and video for their wedding in 2022. Their morning engagement session was a last-minute addition that I’m so happy we were able to fit in!

What a lovely St. Louis engagement session with a lovely couple! Becky, Michael, and I ran around City Garden and the Mural Mile in St. Louis for a while and made some straight-up magic.

I’m obsessed with these beautiful people! Their Pere Marquette engagement session was all I wanted out of my Saturday evening. After a rainy weekend, the sun came out to play for Macie and Blaine’s photos.

Brianne and Loren are such sweet folks with, obviously, the cutest pups! I’m a sucker for a good hunting dog… We spent some time on their family’s farm land, and hopped around to another couple of cool spots around Gillespie for some late-evening photos. It was a blast!

This was, by far the coldest engagement session that I’ve ever done, but of some of the warmest souls that I’ve ever photographed! While their wedding is at another venue entirely, I have to give a shoutout to the kind folks at Boo Cat Club for giving us an indoor venue in which to take some beautiful photos and keep out of the frigid temps for a little while!

This St. Louis engagement session was an insane amount of fun! Amanda and Alex are fantastic people. Check out this blog if you want to see some cool photos of a great couple and get some tips on how to plan a zoo engagement session!

Stephanie and Zach’s late-fall engagement session in Highland, Illinois at Silver Lake Park was gorgeous! We did this session during a week where I had about 6 other shoots and, let me tell you what, every single one had this amazing, warm light.

I’m so excited to share a bit of Moses and Emily’s engagement session with you! I think we were met with probably the best light I’ve ever seen in my whole dang life. That, paired with these two awesome humans made for a session for the books! I shot, like, DOUBLE the amount that I normally shoot for a session like this. They were that good.

Kristen and Andrew’s St. Louis engagement session in Downtown and Lafayette park!

Lauri and Matt’s Peoria, Illinois engagement session! Check out some of my favorites!

A gorgeous sunrise joined Chelsea and Mason during their engagement session in Peoria, Illiniois.

I love the pictures I made with Michalah and Zach. Checkout out some highlights from their Peoria, IL engagement session.

Heather and Coleman’s Springfield, Illinois Engagement Session. EPIC.

Elizabeth and Scott’s Forest Park engagement session!

Max and Abigail’s Peoria, Illinois engagement session!

Being in front of the camera doesn’t have to feel foreign! Here are a photographer’s 5 best pieces of advice for those planning an engagement session.

Emma and Kurt’s Hillsboro, Illinois engagement session!

Katie+Kyle+Puppy = a great time. It's just simple math, guys.