To think the new trend for engagement pictures taken by professional photographers is daft t?

[ComposHat]

I was browsing Facebook the other day and noticed that a number of newly engaged couples had comissioned sets of professional done engagement pictures. They all looked generic and very stagey. Happy couple walking through a wood hand in hand, happy couple pulling lovey dovey poses, showing off the engagement ring etc. Sort of like a Hello! spread.

AIBU to think this. latest and most absurd example of wedding mania, undertaken by the vain and those with illusions of granduer?

WIBU for me and my fiancee to put up a series of spoof engagement pictures? Gazing at each other with rapt adulation whilst swigging supermarket lager in our vest and pants or eating the same noodle from a pot noodle Lady and the Tramp style

and then out the pictures up on Facebook?

Definately do the spoof ones!

But as for other people spending their own money on photographs of themselves to mark a special occasion in their lives - I couldn't care less to be honest. None of my business

Do people still do those mad, posed wedding photographs, or is this a past trend?
I remember one particular photographer's studio in the town where I grew up which had

(a) a photo of a bride walking through a stable yard in a long white dress and veil, leading a large horse on a halter

(b)a bride for some reason sitting at an old-fashioned sewing machine, in a huge meringue frock

and

(c) the weirdest one of all which had the groom, best man and ushers, complete with top hat and tails, all dropping their trousers on the local railway station platform to reveal matching bright yellow boxers with smiley faces on them...

We got an engagement shoot for free as part of the wedding photography package, a sort of "get to know you shoot" really.. which worked well as we got more relaxed in front of the camera. But it was SO embarrassing staring lovingly at each other in various places in central London.. a few lovely photos though. Didn't tell anyone (apart from family and bezzie mates) however and certainly didn't put them on facebook!

I remember ones Peevish where the bride would be looking at you out of a glass of champagne, or would be hiding behind a tree peeping out at herself standing somewhere in front of the tree.

Too daft for worlds!

Words, not worlds.

I have two facebook friends, both recent new mothers. Just before the babies were born they both posted onto facebook a Hello-style professional looking pregnancy photoshoot - couple walking in park, holding hands over bump in a heart shape, caressing bump etc. Neither couple is British, so maybe this is something else that will come over here (one couple is from the US).

I've seen some of these. Done as a pre-wedding planning shoot. Unfortunately the one of the couple died before the wedding so those photos were all the remaining partner and family ever had. I'm not saying everybody should have them done 'just in case' but I think we should remember that all we're talking about here is a few pictures that show a couple (hopefully) in love. Not really a topic to get grumpy about. YABU

I've seen some of these on FB. First one was largely photos of the bride to be jumping around in a very mini skirt and a balloon, with groom to be making an appearance in one or two, just to officially make it an "engagement" shoot, rather than the photographer perving over a leggy blonde.
Second was hilarious (the couple linked to the photographers blog on FB so you had all the background etc.). Apparently they had wanted a "fashion style shoot, with an urban edge" so cue couple making serious-Zoolander type faces in and around dodgy areas of Vancouver.

I agree that it's daft.

But what is even more daft is now the trend (in SA as far as I can make out, at a minimum) to have pre-birth pregnancy shoot (including strategically placed fabric on naked future mother) and/or both birth naked family photos. I have now, very unfortunately, been subjected to a lot of moob and baby pictures or family members and friends. there are things you cannot unsee

Not new.
Like someone upthread, we got a voucher for a free engagement pic when we bought our engagement ring just over a couple of decades ago. It's still one of the nicest pics we have of the two of us.