Engagement Photo Book: Tips + 10 Ideas

An engagement photo book is a beautiful way to put part of your love story on display. Here are the best ways to go about creating it and what you can use it for.

By Jennifer Prince

Last updated February 5, 2024

Photo by Zola

Congratulations on your engagement and impending nuptials. It can feel like there are a million and one tasks to conquer at this stage in the game, but if you add an engagement photo book to the list, you won’t be sorry you did.

An engagement photo album is more than just a keepsake for beautiful photos of you and your boo. It celebrates the season you’re in—engagement—and captures the moment in paperback or hardcover and leather-bound fashion. Plus, it highlights a different part of your relationship than your wedding photo albums will.

There are a dozen reasons to invest in an engagement photo book and quite a few ways to create it. From a proposal memory book to a wedding photo book, documenting every moment from “Yes!” to “I Do” will help you tell the story of your engagement (and beyond) in a personalized way. Read on to learn about an engagement photo book's unique styles, content options, and potential uses for custom photo books.

What to Do With Your Engagement Photo Book? Top Tips.

Photo Credit // Shutterstock

1. Add Proposal Photos

Did someone capture your proposal on camera? If so, a proposal photo book is perfect for letting that joyous day live on. Proposal photos are full of genuine surprise, heartfelt warmth, and raw emotion and tend to show a couple at their happiest. Bottle those emotions up in a beautiful photo album, and you’ll be glad you can relive the day over and over again, especially in the midst of wedding planning when tensions can be high.

Additionally, everyone loves a good proposal story. A proposal photo book lets you share the day with friends and family who may not have been there and let them see how it all went down.

2. Include Engagement Photos

If you paid good money for an engagement session, why not put those photos to work? Your engagement photos are good for more than just your wedding website and save-the-dates, but useful for placing around your home and in a photo album. Take advantage of what is probably some of your first professional photos together, and create an engagement photo book made up of your favorite images from your engagement photoshoot.

Whether the session took place on top of a mountain, at a nearby park, or in front of your favorite ice cream shop, the photos will surely be beautiful and deserve more than a one-time glance. You’ll be happy to have a place for all the photos from the shoot, and even happier when you can utilize the book as your guest book at your wedding or the first coffee table book in your home.

3. Use Engagement Party Photos

An engagement photo book isn’t limited to photos from your proposal or engagement. You can also include photos from both occasions and/or events, such as your engagement party. By including photos from the event, you’ll be able to include the significant people that were there in your engagement photo book. A photo book highlighting the party and people there is also a great thank-you gift for the host of the engagement party. He or she will be thrilled to see all their hard work in print and touched by the thoughtful sentiment.

4. Select Photos From Your Engagement Season

Whether your engagement lasts a few months or a few years, you’re bound to take plenty of photos throughout the season. For a casual and personal take on an engagement photo book, scroll through your camera roll and pull all your favorite photos from the time. You can include the actual proposal, wedding shower photos, and party pics, but the candid shots of you and your significant other picking out the venue or signing your marriage license will make it feel more personal and fun, too.

Types of Engagement Photo Books

Photo Credit // Shutterstock

1. Fabric Hardcover

There’s a bounty of digital services that can help you create your engagement photo book today and an array of options to choose from when designing it. You’ll be surprised at how easy these services make it to assemble a photo book and how beautiful it can turn out.

One of the most timeless looks for an album is a fabric hard-covered album, such as this linen-covered album from Artifact Uprising. When you choose a fabric-covered album, you will likely have various color options to choose from, so you can pick the hue that matches your wedding color scheme or the tones of your home. You can also personalize the cover with your names and the date of your engagement or wedding day in foil-pressed lettering that will add an elegant look and feel to the outside.

2. Stately Leather

Another timeless option is leather. Leather-bound albums immediately feel high-quality and indestructible. The heavy yet soft material will protect pages of precious photos and provide the perfect canvas for text or imagery on the front cover. Also, when you opt for a fabric or leather photo book, you often have the option for lay-flat binding, which allows the pages to lie completely flat when you open them. This makes for easy viewing and ensures there won’t be a seam cutting through you or your partner’s face on photo pages that bleed from one to the next.

3. Small Softcover

If you want to put your engagement photos in an album without spending too much time creating it, a small softcover album may be the way to go. Plenty of sites, like Chatbooks, offer easy-to-make softcover photo books. Just upload your choice of photos, and the platform will automatically fill your book with one photo per page. You can add captions if you like or leave it simple. With a seamless and affordable process like that, you can create multiple engagement photo books: one for your proposal, one for your photo session, one for your party, and so on. This style is quick for viewing, and storing takes up very little space, which is also great.

4. Scrapbook

Alternatively, you may want to consider a more customizable photo book where you can truly let your creativity shine. With a good old-fashioned DIY scrapbook, you can include fun mementos from bachelor/bachelorette parties, silly selfies, and ticket stubs or brochures from places you went and things you saw. Beyond photos and mementos, you can also personalize this with handcrafted touches, such as stickers on the album cover.

A handmade scrapbook is also a heartfelt gift for your fiancé on the morning of your wedding. Your partner will love looking back on all the memories that led you both to that very moment. If you’re creative, skip the layflat templates and leather photo album in lieu of having your special moments showcased in a one-of-a-kind cover design.

5. Text Pages

If you plan to use your engagement photo book as your guest book at your wedding, pick out a book with room for long meaningful messages and short and sweet notes. A great way to go about this is by designing the book with a photo page and a blank page side by side or by bordering each image with blank space. Even if you don’t use your engagement album for your guest book, text pages can be a good option if you want to add your notes or captions throughout.

What to Do With Your Engagement Photobook

1. Use It as Your Guest Book

One of the best uses for your engagement photo book is to use it as a guest book at your wedding. While a blank book is clean and classic, one filled with photos of you and your new spouse is more fun for guests to sign and look at. Let guests find their favorite page and sign their names. Plus, using your engagement book as your wedding guest book photo book removes the need to buy both, and when you’re spending as much money as you are on your big day, every small budget saver makes a big difference when planning your special day.

2. Give It as a Gift

An engagement photo book is a great gift for a birthday or holiday, but it also makes a great wedding present for your fiancé, parents, future in-laws, or grandparents. If you put time into creating it, you may as well order a few, tie them up with ribbon, and pass them out to the people who will love them the most.

It’s one of those gift ideas that your loved ones will truly enjoy. Give it as an engagement gift to your fiance, as a premium photo book will make a special keepsake. If you don’t have time, you can always gift a book filled with your special moments to him or her as one of your wedding gift ideas.

3. Put It on Your Coffee Table

Part of the fun of decorating your newlywed home is filling it with pieces of you two. Let your engagement story live on by giving the book a place to live on your coffee table or bookshelf. It’s the decor, but your friends—old and new—will also enjoy flipping through it.

Whether you create it as soon as you have the photos from your engagement shoot or wait until after your wedding, an engagement photo book is a beautiful way to display part of your love story.

Best Engagement Photo Book Ideas

Some keepsake books are best sellers, but you may want something more unique. Here’s a collection of TK engagement photo album ideas. You can even checkout these as references for your wedding photo albums.

Zola, Your Best Wedding Source

Of course, you should display your favorite pre-wedding images in a photo frame, but there is also something special about a personalized engagement photo album. From displaying it at your bridal shower to keeping it a secret to give on Valentine’s Day, Zola can help you create a lovely keepsake. However, our expert advice section contains a plethora of wedding planning advice to get you on your way. From engagement and setting up your wedding registry to plans after the big day, Zola is here to help you every step of the way.