Engagement photography is a newer part of the wedding planning process that some couples choose to do. While some folks think an engagement shoot is just another expensive add-on in the extravagant wedding industry, it was one of the few things important to me.
Dan and I don’t have many pictures together unless we’re all dressed up. I wanted some fun casual photos together. Plus our photographers were very affordable!
With a short engagement, we needed to move quickly if we wanted outdoor engagement photos. Winter begins early in Ohio, and I didn’t want engagement pictures of Dan and me in heavy winter coats. Luckily we spent Thanksgiving in Greenwood that year, and Trinity Photography was available on Saturday to take our engagement photos.
I contacted Trinity Photography about our engagement photos because I had worked with them growing up. They took my end-of-year dance photos with the Greenwood Dance Center. They also photographed my debutante ball. I was thrilled when they responded to my last-minute email with availability the Saturday after Thanksgiving.
Working with Trinity Photography was amazing. They’re a family business of Mary Ann and her two daughters, Kristin and Kara. Mary Ann and I emailed back and forth leading up to our engagement shoot. She suggested I create a Pinterest board with engagement photos I liked. Naturally I consulted Dan for his ideas, and we actually pinned several pictures of our friends Lee and Ashleigh.
Based on my Pinterest board, Mary Ann and Kristin scouted out an amazing secondhand bookstore for our engagement shoot. Plus there was a cool old barn with a tire swing nearby, and a lake was also in the area. I was SO impressed at the time and personalized attention Mary Ann and Kristin gave us. I love that they found a location just for Dan and me, somewhere new where they hadn’t taken engagement photos before.
The day of our engagement shoot, Mary Ann and Kristin met us at the bookstore. They spent about two hours with us taking our engagement photos. Mary Ann set up most of the shots while Kristin photographed us. We felt very relaxed and comfortable with them. This is a must for good photos! In fact, many engaged couples do engagement photos for that reason. They want to become comfortable with their photographer before the wedding. That wasn’t the case for us, but it’s definitely a solid reason for engagement photos.
Even a year and a half later, I can’t get over how great our engagement photos look! I also love how many black and white photos Kristin took.
Just FYI, the reason I’m not wearing my glasses in all the pictures is because I have transition lenses. While I love my transition lenses, I didn’t want to wear sunglasses in my engagement photos. Luckily we took plenty of indoor photos at the secondhand bookstore! I look most like myself while wearing glasses.
In case you missed it…
Unusual Wedding Planning for a Nerdy Couple
Why My Husband and I Did Premarital Counseling Before He Proposed
To any engaged couples, will you take engagement photos? To my married friends, did you have an engagement shoot? If you blogged about your engagement pictures, please leave me a link to check it out!
I love the backlit on of you two in the stables!
These are really fun! I love the bookstore ones! I want shots of me in a bookstore haha.
I’m so glad our photographers found a secondhand bookstore for us. I wasn’t sure if our local library would have let us shoot there!
Adorable!! I love the ones taken in the library 🙂
Me too! They’re my favorites. 🙂
I really like how y’all chose a place that fit your personalities. My favorites are you kissing behind the book, standing on the books & in the barn. So cute!
Those two book poses were inspired by Pinterest. 😀
These turned out so cute. Love the B&W ones. =]
These are adorable!! I love the photos inside of the bookstore, that is a perfect way to bring in your personalities, and bring pinterest to life!
Pinterest was a surprisingly big help with the whole wedding planning process. It’s not just a place to pin outrageous wedding ideas!
These are great photos! It’s wonderful that your photographers took the time to choose locations that work best for your personalities.
I LOVE the library photos!! I totally want to share them with my SIL who just got engaged. I think she and her fiance will looooove this idea for their engagement shoot. You two look like you had so much fun doing these 🙂
Please do! I’m happy to share my ideas. Show her my Pinterest board too, which has tons of other cute bookish engagement pictures.
The adorable factor of you two is up there! This was a great photo shoot and as a self-professed book lover and nerd, I love it all.
Maria
http://www.islandlivingmidwest.com/
Thank you!
I love these! The bookstore idea is brilliant! My best friend took our engagements as a gift to us. Of course we were super comfortable with her. She didn’t shoot the wedding because she was in the wedding, but my wedding photographer was a family friend so we were comfortable with him too. It’s so important!
These are so gorgeous! I love the bookstore pictures and the outdoor ones look so cozy too. I wish we had done engagement photos but they weren’t as big of a thing five years ago. I finally convinced my husband to take some professional pictures with me before he deployed and I am so glad we did! http://mymarineandme.blogspot.com/2013/07/laure-love-photography.html
I love how cozy you guys look together! This shoot is all sorts of fun. Reminds me of tea and good books and love stories.
I love these! It’s so awesome when a photographer is able to capture a couple’s personality in their pictures. We took engagement pictures a few months ago, and it was really important to me, too. We don’t have many nice pictures together since Andrew isn’t big on taking pictures. I had to take advantage of this opportunity! It ended up being SO much fun and we got a ton of great pictures. I really need to get some printed out so I can hang them up when we move.
aww super cute! love the library ones!