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.
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.
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?!
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.
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.
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.
