This picnic engagement session in Bend, Oregon, was amplified but the stunning mountain views and golden hour light shining on us. Diana and Bryndon are known for setting up the cutest dates you can think of. They love cooking, crafts, and just being together. So naturally, they decided to get creative and have a picnic engagement session.

Realistically, it’s not all too different from a regular engagement session. Adding in a theme or props to your session is easy and can make it feel a lot more like a real date. Thus, capturing a lot of candid fun and love from the couple. Their photos absolutely show their personalities, love for each other, but also generally what life looks like for them. If you’re looking for an easy way to really spice up your shoot, I highly recommend a picnic engagement session in Bend Oregon.

How to Plan a Picnic Engagement Session

It can be as simple or as elaborate as you want. You can go as far as hiring picnic vendors to give you a lavish picnic engagement session and do all of the work for you. Alternatively, you can DIY it. This is what Bryndon and Diana chose to do for their session.

We chose a basic white sheet. I figured simple was good here as a blanket with patterns might distract from the beautiful landscape, or possibly clash with their outfits. We got a charcuterie board that carried inside of it knives for cutting cheese and spreading the jams.

Next, we picked up all our supplied from Trader Joes. They have a ton of great jams, meats, cheeses, and fruits! This made it super cheap and easy. Finally, Bryndon got some flowers to spread along to the blanket to add some extra flair. We also brought some books of poetry and we had gorgeous set up for our picnic engagement session.

Where to Have a Picnic Engagement Session

This can be a lot to carry. If you don’t mind throwing a ton of stuff into some larger backpacks, you can absolutely go on a hike to your location. But keep in mind, there are a lot of hikes where you’re not meant to go off of the trail. So do your research, or hire a photographer like me for your picnic engagement session as all find a ton of location options for you, and even help you get your permits!

The second option is to find somewhere that you can just park and walk in. I found this hidden gem in Bend Oregon. It’s a small park with gorgeous views of the mountain. We walked about two minutes in and had these incredible views for our picnic engagement session.

Posing

Posing during a picnic engagement session is primarily the same as the posing I’d do for a regular session. I just prompt a lot more of poses in the sitting position. I also had them lay together and read lines from our poetry book. They made and shared some of their food, put flowers in one another’s hair, and rolled around looking at the mountains.

The trick to posing is to keep your hands and bodies moving, even if you’re simply kind of swaying as you’re holding each other. But you don’t need to worry about your posing. With me as your photographer I’ll tell you exactly what to do and guide you through the whole thing while making sure you’re you’re having a great time. Check out the photos below! If you’re interested in your own picnic engagement session, reach out to me here!