Planning Your Engagement Photos

I have to apologize...I think I fell off the map for a bit and have missed posting to The Adorable Mess. Teaching is the most wonderful and the most challenging thing that I've ever done, and it consumes most or all of my time. Not to mention that I'm trying to plan a wedding on top of it all.

I've been meaning to share our engagement pictures with you guys and thought that you might enjoy them.   I'm not going to lie, I stalked Pinterest for hours trying to gather ideas, but in the end what I really wanted was something original.  I was stoked when they were finished and could not have been more pleased with the way that they turned out, but I learned a lot from the process and thought that I'd share my findings with those bride-to-bes out there!

1. Do your research on your photographer.
When I was choosing our photographer, I wanted to pick someone who would be able to gather the essence of us and of our style.  Brett is pretty basic and I tend to be quite a bit more detailed.  I also LOVE vintage photography, so I was interested in finding someone who could capture all of those elements into our photos.  I ended up asking the sister of one of my bridesmaids to do our engagement photos (Rebekah Bronwen Photography) and was tickled with the way she seemed to understand and capture my vision.  We shared emails back and forth, along with my Pinterest board.  If you want to check out some of her other work, visit her Facebook page for some STUNNING shots.

2. Think about what defines you as a couple.
Brett and I met at a camp called River Valley Ranch.  It is a christian camp in northern Maryland full of rolling hills and, in my mind, it is one of the most beautiful places on earth.  When I was thinking about us, I really wanted to do our engagement photos where our story began: at camp.  We met there and, through the Lord's faithfulness, we grew in our love there.  "The Ranch," as we call it, and our relationship with the Lord is what drew us together, which is why I ended up having our photos taken there.  Brett and I are also pretty easy going and we love the outdoors, which is why I chose a more casual wardrobe and it influenced our choice to do our photos outside.

3. Control your "Pinterest pickiness."
When I began this engagement photo journey, I felt myself wanting certain photos or situations that I found through other websites, blogs and on Pinterest.  While it was important that I gather ideas, the ultimate success of our photos depended upon my trust in our photographer to use her skills and abilities to guide us through the photos that we envisioned.  Did I end up with every photo that I pinned to my engagement photo board? No.  Did I end up with the pictures that I wanted? Yes, yes and yes.  I was absolutely THRILLED with the results and most of them didn't even derive from my Pinterest account.

4. Give yourself plenty of time to get your photos back.
I wanted to use our photos in our Save the Dates, which go out about 6-8 months before the wedding.  What I didn't account for was the turn around time to get our photos back.  We were pushing the deadline to get our Save the Dates out, even though our photographer was prompt and had the pictures to us in the timeline that we originally agreed upon.  I just wish I had given myself a bit more room to work.

Here is the amazing work of our wonderful photographer.  Check her out on Facebook if you're in the Maryland area, she's incredibly talented and so much fun to work with!