I’m happy to share with you Becky and Micheal’s engagement session. We met up at ACU a couple weekends ago for their shoot. I immediately connected with these two – they are super sweet, crazy in love, and just really fun to be around. Becky’s daughter Destiny came along too, the three of them together might have been almost too much for my camera to handle…oh the beauty! I think Destiny needs to get to a modeling agency asap, how gorgeous is she?

Here are some photos for you to enjoy, I included a few more than usual but I just had a really hard time picking my favorites!

And the Slideshow:

Do you know how many times I have heard, “We’re thinking of not doing the Engagement Session.” and my heart just sinks…

I have to once again explain how important this is to my process and HOW FUN IT IS! Sure, it takes some figuring out of schedules, timing, where to shoot, what to wear (or what NOT to wear)…but then guess how many times I’ve heard,

“We’re SO glad we did the Engagement Session!”

This has happened a few times this year and each time, I’ve been so so so happy with the results and so have my couples. It let’s us get to know each other, you learn how fun it is to have a session, you get tips and tricks that we use on your wedding day, and you get to KISS A LOT. It’s probably the ONE time leading up to your wedding that you and your fiance get to connect, hang out, and just be in love.

When Stormie & Jason wanted to bring their cute little dog Max, of course I was happy. I have quite a few clients with dogs and I always encourage them to bring all the family along to their engagement session. Even a bridal session if they want! If it’s important to you, include it in the session. You’ll enjoy your images more if you make them totally you!

And the Slideshow:

Maddie & John both go to school at ACU, so we did their session in Abilene of course. The first time I talked to Maddie about her engagement session was at the Abilene Bridal Fair. For their session, they suggested Nelson Park, because they wanted a setting that reflected their fun and romantic personalities. When I heard park I thought -fabulous picnic engagement session! With a cute wicker basket, colorful quilt, and of course a few Dublin Dr. Peppers we had all the makings of a romantic picnic for two!

We got some awesome shots of Maddie and John on the playground equipment and strolling around the pond. With the exception of a narrowly avoided attack by a gaggle of smug and aggressive geese who felt entitled to our picnic goodies, all went well.

I loved this fun fall session & am SO excited for their beautiful wedding next summer!

And the Slideshow:

Jennifer and Cody’s engagement session was awesome! They are both students at ACU so they wanted to do their engagement session at the school that brought them together. With perfect forethought Jennifer booked the session during fall break so we had the run of the campus, and bonus the famous Chapel On The Hill was unlocked so we got use the beautiful stained glass windows as a backdrop.

Jennifer and Cody are such a cute couple and natural posers – I can’t wait to shoot the wedding in January!

And The Slideshow:

As summer comes to an end and with all the fairs going on this is an appropriate engagement session to share with you all. Jo and K.C. met by chance on the Riverwalk in San Antonio when K.C. asked Jo for directions to his hotel. Only Jo was lost too! K.C. was visiting from Washington state for a few days but ended up staying a lot longer because of Jo! A true love story right?

Well as I said with all the fairs going on and what not I thought I must do an engagement session at one. And everyone knows the best one is at the Brownwood Reunion! I just knew all the colors and scenes would not disappoint and boy was I right. K.C. and Jo are such and have such outgoing personalities that it was a perfect fit. Sure we had to deal with the carnies and wow they’re a unique breed to say the least, and there’s also the ever present sense of impending doom when your strapped into a ride that folds up on a truck but Jo and K.C. were troopers and all in all it was an awesome session.

And the Slideshow:

Ok, so I guess these last couple of posts are plugs for some of the different products , but Stephanie and Bradley”s Guest Book looks so awesome I just had to share it.

The engagement session guestbook is absolutely one of my favorite wedding products. I mean come on! Do you remember the lame-o plain sign-in books with the lined pages? Who even looks at those again? Who even keeps the book?? So whoever thought of the engagement session guestbook album is a genius in my opinion.

This album is very much like a custom designed coffee table book that one would keep in their purse to show off professional portraits to their friends. However, the difference is that this guestbook album is usually printed in a larger format (the following photos are from an 8×8″ book), and include more “open” space throughout the book for guests to be able to write comments and congratulations to the bride and groom. This “open space” could be solid white pages spliced throughout the book, or light backgrounds, or even faded out pictures to allow black ink to show very clearly.

So, in the end, the couple not only has a fabulous book of loving and memorable comments (as opposed to just signatures), but also a very timeless and stylish album of their engagement session. Sweet! I hope every bride and groom I work for will allow me to design an album like this for them.

Here are some of the spreads from Stephanie and Bradley’s engagement session at Rancho del Orso – each spread is approx 8×16″ (two 8×8 pages):

I had the pleasure of photographing Stephanie and Bradley’s engagement portraits over 4th of July weekend. We did the portraits at Stephanie’s family’s place Rancho Del Orso outside of Comanche. The sky was threatening rain the whole time, but it waited until after we were done to let loose and we rolled with it. The upside of stormy weather is it gives you such dramatic skies.

Thanks to an amazing location, an awesome couple, and an array of photogenic animals we got some really cool shots – enjoy!

And the Slideshow:

Back when I was massively pregnant (yes it was awhile ago) I spent an awesome afternoon running around downtown Brownwood with Melissa and Brian shooting their engagement portraits. It was harder than usual to do my patented laying on the ground move we still got great pictures of a fun couple! I can’t wait to see what we get at their wedding in April! Here are the highlights from Melissa and Brian’s engagement.

And the Slideshow:

I had the pleasure of shooting Carmen and Troy’s engagement portraits back before Thanksgiving. Carmen and Troy are such fun, it’s great to be able to photograph such a relaxed, laid back couple. They are getting married in February at the Star of Texas Bad and Breakfast so we shot their portraits out there on the trail. Here are the results.

And the Slideshow: