If you’ve been dating someone for a while, you might have heard of the five love languages. I love to ask my couples what their love languages are, as it allows me to work that into their couple session story. 


If you haven’t heard of them, the five love languages, coined by Gary Chapman in 1992, are Acts of Service, Quality Time, Physical Touch, Words of Affirmation, and Receiving Gifts. Chapman’s theory was that every person has one primary and one secondary love language. Understanding your partner's love language, helps you communicate and love each other better.


How can I use love languages for your couple session?

Typically engagement sessions or couple sessions are a way to capture your love as it is in this moment. By working in your love languages, than I can better understand how to capture that love at its best. Here are some couple session ideas based on your love language:

Acts of Service


What says acts of service more than breakfast in bed!? If Acts of Service is your love language, why not do an in-home session where you make breakfast and enjoy it surrounded by cozy pillows? If you’d rather do a couple session outside the home, why not take a trip to your local laundromat and have a totally retro session while doing laundry.


Acts of Service engagement session ideas:

  • Morning Routine Together – Let's plan a shoot around your morning routine, whether that's making coffee for one another, folding laundry, or doing tiny thoughtful things.
  • Fixer-Upper Project – order that thing you really wanted from Ikea and build it together. Or if you have a room you've always wanted to paint, then let's make it a date night!
  • Cooking for Each Other – Lifestyle session at home or a rustic Airbnb with a cozy kitchen. Think flour fights, chopping veggies, and serving up the meal.
  • Backyard Chores Turned Romance – Raking leaves or hanging laundry with sweetness and stolen kisses.
  • Farmers’ Market Errands – Documentary-style shoot as they shop and pick out treats for a DIY brunch or picnic.
  • Car Wash Date – A little cheeky, a little fun—cleaning the car together, playing with water, ending with a drive-in moment.
  • "I’ll Carry That" Session – Let's go apple picking or even go chop wood. It can be something simple that you help each other with.

Quality Time


If you love spending time in each other’s company, this is an easy love language to work into any couple session, because you’ll be spending quality time with each other already! But you can make this extra special by adding in an activity, like going for a hike with a viewpoint where you can lay out a picnic. Or maybe you spend a day at the fair or go canoeing. Either way, you can’t go wrong with coming up with an activity for your couple session.


Quality Time Engagement Session Ideas:

  • Campfire Connection – Golden hour in the forest with marshmallows, blankets, and deep chats beside a roaring fire.
  • Feel like a kid again – What was your favourite thing to do as a kid - fly a kite, ride a bike, play video games, roll down a hill, colour with chalk? Let's do all the fun things together.
  • Vinyl and Chill – In a cozy record room or living room, dancing slow to your favourite albums together.
  • DIY Pottery Class – At a studio or outdoor setup—hands-on and collaborative, with plenty of chances for smiles and splatters.
  • Sunrise Coffee on the Dock – Capture the quiet, intimate stillness of watching the sun rise wrapped in blankets with thermoses.
  • Board Game Marathon – Playful and fun at home or in a quirky cafe, especially if it’s a meaningful pastime.
  • Road Trip Stopovers – Document your love of road trips with a drive on the backroads, including roadside attractions and hidden roads.
  • Greenhouse Date – Explore a botanical garden or greenhouse slowly, taking in the peace and beauty together.
  • Time Capsule Creation – Create a box of memories and promises to open on a future anniversary.
  • Painting in the Park – Side-by-side easels, picnic blanket, brushes, and sunshine. Extra points for matching overalls.
  • Film Night in the Woods – Set up a projector screen outdoors with fairy lights, popcorn, and cuddles under the stars.

Physical Touch


If you just can’t stop feeling each other up, your love language might just be physical touch! The good news is that this is the easiest love language to work with at a couples session because you’ll be doing a lot of touching no matter what type of session. But if you want to get a little bit spicier, why not do a fun and playful bathtub or hot tub session? Throw on your favourite bathing suit and dive into this adventurous couple session idea. If you don’t have either a hot tub or bathtub, then why not go to the beach and get friendly with the waves?!


Physical Touch Engagement Session Ideas:

  • Dancing in the Rain – Spontaneous movement, drenched in affection, wet hair, soaked clothes, pure intimacy.
  • Blanket Fort Cuddles – Indoors or under a tree, snuggled up in a pillow fort with warm drinks and lazy touches.
  • Lake Day – In swimsuits or wrapped in towels, lying on a dock post-swim, legs tangled, sun kissing your skin.
  • Hot tub vibes - Don your swimsuits and let's splash around in a hot tub (or pool)
  • Snow Day – In mittens and scarves, pulling each other on sleds, warming hands with kisses.
  • Lazy Sunday in Bed – Natural light, rumpled sheets, cuddling with coffee and newspaper pages strewn everywhere.
  • Shared Hammock Session – Swinging gently together in a hammock, wrapped in arms, set in a meadow or wooded glen.

Words of Affirmation


Words of Affirmation is my love language and it might just be the hardest to express visually. If you’re like me and just adore how much your partner expresses their love to you, then why not try this engagement session idea: before your session, write love letters to each other and seal them away. You can even get some special paper and envelopes to elevate the experience. Then during the session, read them to each other and watch how you react. This is also great practice for reading your vows on your wedding day.


Words of Affirmation engagement session ideas:

  • Handwritten Love Letter Picnic – Let's go to a meadow or cliffside and have you write and read letters to each other
  • Bookstore Engagement – At a cozy indie bookstore, sharing your favourite poems or underlining meaningful passages in vintage novels.
  • Typewriter Vows – Let's use a vintage typewriter where you write mini vows to each other and read them aloud.
  • Graffiti Wall Session – Find or create a mural with your favourite quotes about love, or paint affirmations together on a blank canvas.
  • Lyrics & Song Titles – Let's go to a record shop (or maybe you have your own collection) and find songs that remind them of each other.
  • Postcards - Let's go to a shop, select some postcards and mail them off to friends, just because.

Gifts


If your or your partner’s love language is receiving gifts, then let’s do your engagement session in your favourite store - maybe it’s the mall, record store, bookstore or grocery store. Either way, let’s take this show on the road and have a little fun in your favourite place. Along the way, pick out items that remind you of each other.


Receiving Gifts engagement session ideas:

  • Gift Exchange – Each of you brings a surprise gift to exchange during the session.
  • Heirloom Moments – Include any heirlooms in your session. Talk about how sentimental they are.
  • DIY Gifts Session – Baking cookies, making candles or pottery for each other, all wrapped up with bows and messy, loving energy.
  • Scrapbook together – Print off your favourite photos and collect some of your favourite trinkets to create a scrapbook of your life together.
  • Your favourite coffee shop – Each of you has to order for the other person. Can you get the order right?
  • Tiny Treasures on a Blanket – Each of you brings three gifts that represent your love story (like a movie ticket stub, a rock from a hike, etc.). It's a secret until the session.

What if my partner and I don’t have the same love language?


The beauty of a couple session is that you’re telling **your** story. So having it reflect YOU and YOUR PARTNER is key. If you don’t share the same love language, that’s okay. We can work together to find something that you will equally love and look back with joy.