Engagement Photos

I wanted to share a post about our engagement photos and the process.  I thought it might be useful for photo sessions in general or to impart my knowledge to someone who may be preparing for their own engagement photos.

First thing, a good photographer can take great pictures of you no matter the location.  That being said, a great location can make for really spectacular pictures.  Knowing that I would have my very talented friend shoot the photos, I wanted to pick something fun and different that would be new for her and fun for us.  Originally I thought a Fair themed shoot would be so fun, but my fiance said he wanted us to take nice pictures without a gimmicky theme.  Especially since I am doing stuff like that for Salty Sisters all the time.  Our next plan was to go out to our friend's farm property.  Unfortunately, the only week we had available to do our pictures, it rained every day so we had to come up with a back up plan.  Janie, our photographer, suggested a park that has a beach where she has done many shoots, except to use parts of the park that she had not considered before.  Finally, Friday afternoon, our last available day to do the shoot, the sun came out and the sky cleared up in enough time to get some pictures.

I knew that I wanted a shot on a dirt road holding vintage suitcases for our save the dates.  I had also acquired a really fabulous vintage sofa that we are using at our wedding.  I knew I did not want beach pictures but I was ok with water in the pictures.  So with all that in mind a put all of my trust into Janie capturing what we wanted.

As for our wardrobe, I wanted classic with a twist and clothes that reflect what we typically wear.  I also knew that one of my outfits needed a little drama, and all though I might not wear it in real life, that it would look great in pictures.  So Chris stuck with jeans a shirt and blazer for one outfit and then changed into a different shirt for his second look.  I chose a blue and white polka dot dress with a large flower brooch for the first look and wore a denim shirt and over sized white tulle skirt for my second look.  I went heavy on the makeup, knowing that it turns up lighter in the pictures.

So here are some pics with our first outfit.  And I will note some interesting things about some of the pics.

This clearing is actually part of a Frisbee golf course.

Janie had us climb into this patch of overgrowth for some of these shots.

This quaint dirt road is actually a very short path used by service vehicles at the park.  And this area is not very wooded, but through the lens you wouldn't know otherwise.

This is the shot we ended up choosing for our Save the Date.

The next batch has me in a new outfit and Chris changed after a few shots.  But this time we hauled out the sofa down to the shoreline.  This park has an actual beach but we liked how the grass met the water in that area.

While Chris went to change his shirt we took these.

 Then we abandoned the couch and took the rest.

As a side not this last batch was all taken after the sun had set.  We kept asking Janie if it was getting too dark but the camera was picking up so much light and it was this beautiful pink color.

I am soooooooooooo happy with how our pictures turned out.  We felt so dorky at first, but the more natural we could get ourselves to act the better those pictures looked.  I also said I didn't want kissing pictures and we publicly kissed in that hour more than we have in our whole relationship.  And go figure our save the date picture has us kissing!  So just go for it, certain poses that you wouldn't expect to look great might be your favorite and some that you thought would be great might not look as good.  

Most of all have fun and be yourself!

Here is a breakdown of the Stuff and vendors:

Photography- Life Writing Photography

Chalkboard Sign- Salty Sisters Junk

Vintage Suitcases- Salty Sisters Junk

Vintage couch- Salty Sisters Junk

Tulle Skirt- Habana Collection

Spray tan- Angelica Beauty and Waxing

Location- Picnic Island Park, Tampa, FL

We also made photo books of our shoot on Shutterfly and they came out great.  Highly recommend ordering from them. We made a large one for ourselves and our parents and smaller ones for our grandparents.