When we were getting ready for our engagement photo shoot (which was included in our wedding photography package), I spent a long time thinking about what outfits we were going to wear. Sparky was more than happy to let me pick (and tell him what to wear), so I was not only thinking about myself but him as well. I wanted our outfits to be cohesive, but not matching, and I was hoping to wear things we already owned. (I mean, don’t get me wrong, I would have been perfectly happy going shopping for new outfits but that seemed…irresponsible? Or maybe I was just lazy.)
We planned to shoot at three different locations around Seattle, so I wanted to change it up at each location. Before I made any final decisions, I put together inspiration boards and sent it over to our photographer for approval. Her response back was “I don’t think you can go wrong with these and also I want to go shopping.” Then she suggested we finish our session with a snack or a cocktail somewhere since she knows we’re foodies. Krista, in case you are wondering, is a woman after my own heart.
One of the locations is a park, with lots of cool areas and water views. That is our casual portion.
Gap jeans, Toms, Tilly’s cardigan, Banana Republic tank top / Lacoste shirt via Lyst, Diesel shoes via Zappos (sold out), Lucky jeans via Macy’s
When we booked our photographer we decided to swap the engagement shoot that came with our package for an extra hour on the wedding day. We really only wanted engagement pictures to use for our save the dates, and I didn’t think that was more important than an extra hour on the big day.
I am fortunate that one of my bridesmaids, Lemon, is a budding photographer. I knew she was getting to know her way around the camera, and I figured she would want an opportunity to get some practice in. I was a little nervous to ask her for such a huge favor, but she could not have been more gracious about accepting the challenge. It turns out that she asked a friend to do her engagement pictures! I hope I get the chance to pay this forward since I am trying to become a bit of a photographer myself.
Tallahassee has a lot of beautiful locations, but I only considered one—Maclay Gardens.
I sent Lemon a few inspiration photos but basically told her she could direct us as she chose. One of my inspirations needed a view from high up, so she brought a ladder to help us get that shot! How great is she? We had two outfits—one casual and one formal.
First up are the casual photos:
In addition to a day’s worth of video coverage of our wedding day, we are also doing something a little different with our videographers at 3rd Hat. Prior to the wedding (in about three weeks, actually), we’re going to be filming a love story video.
Never heard of it? Me neither. Apparently it is like an interview with the bride and groom talking about how they met, how they fell in love, first kiss, first “I love you”s, engagement story, etc. When I started looking them up online, I found that it is kind of like an e-pic session, but on film.
Here, see for yourself:
Emily & Sean’s NJ Wedding Love Story Video from Abella Studios on Vimeo
Adorable, right?
Have you ever had those grand ideas that went oh so terribly wrong? OK OK OK…terribly wrong is a bit of an exaggeration, but when you have your mind set on something and then it turns out the complete opposite. Our engagement pictures were like that! Let me give you a bit of a background before I detail how it went wrong.
I wanted each of our potential 25 tables to have a different picture that represented Purdue landmarks. That way, instead of numbers, I could name the tables with the corresponding landmark. So that would mean within two hours we would need to visit over 25 landmarks and take 15–20 photos at each landmark. Yes, that seems like a lot, but it gets better. We would not have any form of transportation (read: we would need to WALK to every location)…oh yeah, my photographer was seven-and-a-half months PREGNANT! It was unrealistic to expect her to walk over 12 miles in two hours. I have never been pregnant, but I have plenty of friends who have been. When they were seven-and-a-half months pregnant, it sounded like they just did wind sprints after walking from their car to the front door. All in all, I knew it wasn’t going to happen.
| Fantasy | Reality |
| 25 landmarks | Seven different locations |
| Five different outfits | Two different outfits |
| 400 pictures to pick from | 200 AMAZING pictures |
So, it didn’t happen the way I expected it, but it was everything that I wanted and more! I had a fabulous friend come with me to make sure my “look” was right. It was my brief glimpse into what a real photo shoot looks/feels like. Up to this point, all the wedding planning felt like it was technicalities. This was the first time that I felt like this was REAL. Like my beau and I were really going to DO THIS! Every time I see these pictures, I get so excited. Below are the sneak peeks of the pictures. I will share some of our other favorites with you when I reveal our save the dates. Enjoy!!!
All images courtesy of Rachel Wood Photography
Despite all of the b-e-a-utiful save-the-date inspiration I shared with you in the last post, we opted to go a completely different route.
I was browsing the DIY Boards and found this beauty by hive member Miss Q. She was kind enough to share the template with me at my request, so I present to you my official save-the-date inspiration—as in, this is what we were originally set on:
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From the lovely hive member Miss Q / Edited a little to remove her personal information
I was in love with this idea. I believe she used it for a magnet, but I had visions of it in postcard form—of course, with our colors, our date, our information.
I apologize for the delay, but finally, after all of these posts, I’m ready to share some of our favorite engagement pictures. I say “some” because our photographers provided us with over 150 of them, each edited with the full rights. It was hard to pick the best ones, but I think I was able to narrow it down sufficiently enough to give you all a solid idea of how our day went. I know I’ve already mentioned how awesome they are, so I’ll try to refrain from squeeing about them TOO much. 
We’re in love with our pictures and I think that’s pretty clear—so let me abstain from over-wording everything as per usual and let the pictures speak for themselves. After all, that’s what matters here, right?
(ALL photos via the amazing, wonderful, faaaabulous Limelight Images)
One of the “serious” shots
Hello, hive!
As lots of other bees do, today I’d love to share our engagement photos with you!
First, a little background. So Cam works at a newspaper right? Anyone who lives in 2013 knows that unfortunately print media is not exactly an up-and-coming industry. Several jobs ago, he worked at a reaaaaally small community newspaper that unfortunately got absorbed by a larger company. The photographer for that paper decided to get out while the getting was good, and started his own personal photography business. When Cam’s sisters got married, two years apart, he suggested that Robert do their photography. Again, at this point he was relatively new to the wedding game. His work is fabulous. Here are a couple photos of my future sisters-in-law, AKA Bridesmaid C and Bridesmaid E:
Photo via of Robert Ross Photography Facebook Group / Image credit: Robert Ross Photography
I’m sure many of you are aware of the wondrous website that is Pinterest. I was pinning for the wedding long before we got engaged, and the pins have been coming fast and furious ever since.
One of my favorite things to pin is photography inspiration. I’m lucky enough that our photographers at studiOsnap have been following my “Snap It” board and getting lots of ideas for our shoots! Now that we have all of our engagement photos back, it has been fun to look at the original inspiration pictures and see how they were made a reality.
Inspiration:
Photo by Debs Ivelja via Polka Dot Bride
Reality:
I have so much to share that I barely know where to begin. As you’ve gathered from the theme of my last few posts, I’ve been obsessing over our engagement pictures.
Let me tell you, friends: obsession so worth it.
We had an absolutely fabulous time that exceeded all of our expectations. The entire evening was so much fun. Our photographers, Jimmy and Kristy of Limelight-Images (clearly you should all be on a first-name basis with them as we are by now 
), were incredibly engaging and so much fun. It felt so comfortable, and their experience and skills were so evident; they knew just how to catch the right shots of the city and just how to pose us. It was also fun to see them work together as a husband and wife team—they played off of each other so well and spoke in half-finished sentences the entire time. “Kris, could you…?” “Jimmy, why don’t you grab that wide lens…?” Being a ginormous oober goober, I had what we refer to as “bursties” the entire time just witnessing them…and of course, staring into the eyes of my handsome other half for two hours helped as well.
I’ve sung the praises of our wonderful photographers, Limelight Images, so loudly that your ears are probably bleeding, so I’ll try my hardest to refrain from doing so in this post…it’s just so hard, when they’re so awesome.
I mentioned before: I’m huge on pictures. I’ve already started a list of must-haves for our wedding day, including the “jump shot” and the “carry shot.”
Image via Limelight Images / The vice-versa will also happen—I’m all for equality.
For a long time I was certain of what everyone would be wearing for the engagement photos.
Yes, everyone. Me, Mr. Plane…and Lil Wingman. Our dog LW will, indeed, be making an appearance in our first photo shoot as an engaged couple. I have some very dog-specific photos in mind.
Mr. Plane is probably the easiest. He’ll wear jeans or slacks, a button down, and one of the nice sport coats he recently purchased for a work trip.
I thought I had most of my outfit figured out, until I found an amazing one-sleeved beauty that is now in competition for the more formal shots downtown. I think I am pretty close to making a decision, though.
Who would have thought the toughest one to dress would be the dog?!
We’re not normally “dress up your pets” type of people, but since he won’t be at the wedding, when else would he have the chance to get all spiffy? Some options…
More than a year prior to the wedding, Mr. Plane and I had the opportunity to finally work with our amazing photographer for the first time. We had our engagement photo session scheduled for the second weekend in September, one of my favorite times of the year, in Ann Arbor, one of my favorite places in Michigan. There is nothing like September in Ann Arbor. There is an energy in the city that only exists during the fall, and I think we were able to capture some of that in our photos.
We started in the afternoon in U-M’s Arboretum (or the Arb as it is more commonly referred to) getting some “nature-y” shots. The Arb is a little nature amid the hustle of the city—it makes me think of what Ann Arbor used to look like, when it was dubbed “Tree City.” Prior to the shoot, Mr. Plane and I took a trip to the Arb and scouted out some locations.
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.
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Image via Paul Fletcher Photography
Swoon! I think this one was my favourite. So iconic without being cheesy and touristy—gorgeous.
Last post, I talked about some of the inspirational pictures that I had for our winter engagement shoot. Well, what did we end up doing? I must admit we kind of took the lazy (and way smarter) route and just let our wonderful photographers pick a location. Our photographers, Kim and Tom, chose a beautiful historical mansion nearby where we had a whole range of different backdrops and I just let them work their magic!
I must admit, I took the lazy way out in terms of preparing for this shoot. I picked a dress that I had in my closet for many years, while PBear’s jacket was stolen from my dad’s closet. Any coordination was purely coincidental. I didn’t change out the accessories I usually wear, and I definitely didn’t wear makeup. I know it’ll be a big change from our look on the big day, but I’m so happy to have some pictures of us looking casual.
All images via All-Star Photos
When we went out to our photo shoot on a “warm” 45 degree day a couple days after Christmas, we really didn’t have any idea what to expect or what to do. I think it really did give us a good idea of what to expect, come wedding day, and I’m so glad we got this opportunity! It took a while for us to loosen up, but those are the pictures that I like the best. I had been anxiously waiting to see the pictures. But boy were they worth the wait!
I am so thrilled with how the pictures turned out. I love how so many of the pictures really feel like us.
Okay, enough talking, more pictures. It was so hard to narrow down the pictures, but here are just a couple of my favorites. Many, many pictures of us trying not to look cold ahead:
I never had any engagement-photo inspirations really, mainly because I thought we weren’t going to have any. We nixed the idea of doing engagement pictures very early in the process since it seemed unnecessary and, frankly, it wasn’t in the budget.
Thus, when a friend of my parents offered to take engagement pictures for us while we were visiting for Christmas break, I was very, very thankful for the opportunity to get some nice shots of us.
However, I really had no idea where to start looking for inspiration, what to wear, or even what type of pictures we wanted. I never thought I would be taking engagement pictures in the dead of winter. Many of the really beautiful engagement pictures that I had pinned involve frolicking in a large field, like Miss Camel’s and Miss Otter’s gorgeous engagement pictures. Winter was never really part of my equation—I’m a complete and total wuss when it comes to being outside in the cold. That being said, there are a lot of very gorgeous winter engagement sessions.
Photo by: Canary Grey Photography on Grey Likes Weddings via Lover.ly
