Weddingbee Blog

Jack proposed in October. We wanted to get our save the dates out pretty sharpish for our September 2013 wedding so people could book accommodation, but that posed a problem…English weather is unpredictable. Particularly in the autumn.

We wanted our save the dates to have our picture on them, and I loved the idea of an engagement shoot. We hardly had any photos of us as a couple, and this proved to be the best time to get them. I had Googled “Brighton engagement shoot” to get some inspiration for pictures in our area and fell in love with some of the ones I found.

Image via Paul Fletcher Photography

Swoon! I think this one was my favourite. So iconic without being cheesy and touristy—gorgeous.

Image via OMG I’m Getting Married / Photo via Green Olive Wedding Photography

Clearly—we’d need to be outside to get some of the pictures we’d like!

When we met Luke we asked him if he did engagement shoots, and weren’t surprised when he said he hadn’t before because they are not as common over here as they seem to be in the States. But just because he hadn’t before didn’t mean he wouldn’t!

We booked a day mid-November that had a good forecast, but unfortunately Luke couldn’t make it. I was gutted as I walked outside that day—warm weather, no coats needed, and sunlight that lit up the city. Bummer. But when the day came that we had our shoot, I couldn’t have been happier that the date had been changed—the weather was even more perfect. Mild, but without glaring sun. Just enough to light up the sky but not enough for us to struggle without sunglasses.

I spent the entire night before going through my wardrobe to find the perfect outfit and settled on a patterned green dress with long sleeves, woolly cream tights, and flat brown boots. Jack picked jeans, a pale blue patterned shirt, and a dark blue jumper. I read that it’s good to mix patterns and colours to make black and white photos more interesting.

So we met Luke and discussed what kind of pictures he would take. We’re not fans of the “posed” picture, and that isn’t his style, so it was quite tricky coming up for ideas for an engagement shoot, which is, essentially, a posed shoot! We used the photos I’d found as inspiration and we walked through the city, pointing out areas of interest—the pier, a quirky bus stop, the beach, and the Lanes, a cool shopping street.

At first I was massively self-conscious. He got us to sit down on the beach and chat, took a few pictures of us like that, and then asked us to walk along the beach together. As the hour passed I got more confident and started to loosen up a bit.

Once we were done, we said good-bye and he told us he’d have the pictures up on his site the next day—nice! I would have been too excited to wait longer, so I was really pleased he’d get them up straight away.

He edited 94 photos. You could see my nerves in the first few—I wasn’t relaxed at all—but you could see the weight being lifted gradually photo by photo. I ’d never had my photo taken before by a photographer, so this was a real eye-opener for me and I’m glad I had the chance to get to know him first before the big day. It also gave me some tips—I need to show off my smile rather than smile with my lips shut, and I make stupid faces when I talk. All good things to know!

We only have two pictures at the moment because we’ve decided to buy few of our favourite ones rather than the whole lot—I don’t know what we’d do with 94 photos of us! One is being used in our save the dates, so I’ll show you that when it’s ready, but here’s just one for you to feast your eyes on until then.

Did you take engagement photos?