A Tuscany engagement session can be elegant without feeling overly posed. For the second half of this Tuscany engagement session in Lucca, we kept the same beautiful wardrobe but changed the energy completely.

We started inside the botanical garden, surrounded by fountains, classical statues, roses, and layers of greenery. Instead of concentrating on still, composed portraits, I gave the couple more room to move. They walked through the garden, laughed together, sat beside the fountain, and simply enjoyed the setting.

Then we left the garden and wandered into the streets of Lucca.

This is where the session became even more playful. The pale blue and silver Mac Duggal dress looked completely different against the warm yellow buildings and soft pink walls of the city. Morgana twirled through the streets, the couple walked together, and we let the architecture and little moments we found along the way guide us.

We also introduced a long blue silk ribbon. First we tied it around Morgana’s neck, then around her fiancé’s. Eventually they played with it together. It was a very simple detail, but it added movement and a slightly unexpected element to the portraits.

That combination is one of my favorite things about engagement sessions. We can create a few more polished, editorial photographs and then allow the rest to become looser and more spontaneous.

A Tuscany engagement session naturally gives us extraordinary surroundings, but the location is only part of what makes photographs interesting. Movement, styling, curiosity, and the willingness to play matter just as much.

The result feels romantic and elegant, but also a little mischievous. And somewhere between the fountain, the ribbon, and wandering through Lucca, the photographs begin to feel less like a formal portrait session and more like an afternoon in Italy that happened to be beautifully documented.

View More: Engagement Portraits Inspired by Art in Lucca

See the more artistic side of this Lucca engagement session, where Renaissance architecture, sculptural poses, and a dramatic blue cape transformed the portraits into something reminiscent of paintings.