I prefer to shoot engagements outside, in the early morning. I like to have about two hours in the shoot. Here are tips that I use:

1. Scout areas out. I have about a half dozen places I use for mornings. Here is a list of ideas;

restaurant with a fountain or a fountain (I have a great one at an applebee's restaurant that has a white brick wall on three sides, great for bouncing a flash off of.

Large flight of steps: I have two of these.. the courthouse and a metal one in an alley with a red brick wall and a stucco wall on the other side.

A park with shade: my final location because I have solid shade at around 9am

Flower garden: luckily we have several open flower gardens... one is at the park that I use for my shade. Flower gardens, many times, have gazebos or benches. Get a good angle and fire with a moderate DOF to catch some flowers behind them.

Scouting out many locations is important, I don't know how many times one of my favorite locations was not available for some reason. Just move to the next location and come back.

2. When I first meet people for a shoot I have to sit down with them. I do this at their home many times because I don't have my own studio and I find that they are a lot more open in their own home. You gotta look at things like their noses, weight, skin color and more. In one case, I didn't meet them and it was done all over email... one of them was in a wheel chair, that changes the ball game. Meet them in a free consultation, it will pay off in the picture.

3. I don't treat engagement shoots like normal pictures, I like to think of them as a fashion shoot. I have this internal mode that I have to turn on, I am a very active shooter... no tripod, fast moving.

4. Get some ideas from other engagement shots... go online and take screenshots of your favorite poses and make a cheat sheet with it. One thing I like to do is have what I call "her time" "his time" "eye contact" "1000 meter stare" .... basically, make him look at her while she looks at the camera in every pose, reverse so she looks at him... look at each other... look off into the distance and then the camera.

5. Right when the shoot begins I like to explain some things... number 4 is one of them. I explain that in each one I want to get these shots. After the second pose or so, they just get into it and do it themselves. Talk to them, the whole time... unless... they are getting a little intimate, I have seen this several times and talking will break the mood.

6. Some of my favorite poses:
One in focus.. one in background
One in focus.. one in foreground
Frame somehow from unfocused to the other in focus. Umm... Okay, lets say he has a cowboy hat. Turn him sideways and have him reach up like he is going to tip is hat to someone out of camera... put her in the background about 30 feet away.. enough to put her whole body in the frame of his arm. Get creative with it. Scout the area and imagine following them, use your camera when you scout the area.

7. Plan to shoot at least 200 images. This isn't so you have lots of pictures. I think they don't really get into it until you have fired off at least 100 shots. They loosen up. I like to start off sitting on a flight of stairs or at the fountain then move to my favorites which are the flower gardens, alleys and parks.

8. Talk a lot. Compliment them from the beginning, all the time, no matter what the pictures look like. They will get better.

9. On the technical side, I only use one flash. I used to keep the flash off camera but I like to keep them moving too and I don't want to carry the flash. Sometimes, I have gone an entire session without the flash. I use two lenses for each site we go to.

Now, I have never done a wedding but I have done engagement shots and couples several times. These are what I do... but they are probably run of the mill and what everyone does. I actually have a cheat sheet of great locations to shoot at that I have developed over the last year or so. You need to find at least a couple close locations, I have three all within walking distance; an alley, a little bridge and park and a flower garden. I like to go to each location for about 20 minutes or so each and then at the end sit down and take a break for a few minutes and ask them where they were the most comfortable and go back there for 20-30 more minutes. I usually get my best images in the last session.

Take pictures of the rings in each location in some creative way... rings in focus on a step with the couple out of focus in the background.