I can’t begin to tell you how happy I was to be asked to photograph Sarah & Luke’s wedding this summer! They are such a beautiful couple & they have such a fun loving & easy way with one another…July can’t get her quick enough! In the meantime here are some images from their bridal themed engagement session! Enjoy!

Chicago, where the sun shines and where the sweetest couple ever got engaged. When Meghan, PJ and I first began discussing their wedding, it came up that they were engaged at North Avenue Beach. PJ was getting his Masters at DePaul University and Meghan was visiting almost every weekend via a friend’s companion pass on Delta. Nice deal, right? So, a large part of their relationship grew in Chicago. Since I have so many fond memories and friends there myself, we hatched a plan to shoot their engagement pictures on location at the first sign of nice weather. Here are the results!

While many couples see the engagement session as a photographic perk that might be first on the chopping block due to budget, this part of the photo process is the most important to me, and I think it should be highly important to you as well.

First, it lets me get to know you. The last thing you should ever want is a photographer who you don’t know peppering you with questions on your wedding day. You’ll have enough people vying for your thoughts that day, I promise, and I don’t want to be one of them. I want you to forget I’m there, and I want to blend into the background and just capture what’s happening around us. This happens a whole lot easier if we’ve done it all before — like in an engagement session.

Second, holding an engagement session helps me to find your best angles. I want you to look your absolute best on the big day, and I think you do, too.

Third, if we’ve done a session already, you can give me feedback. For instance, I hate X angle or I loved X pose with my guy. You get the picture. No pun intended. This is also a great time to tell me that you love the black and white photos more than color, and I should process a ton of them that way for the wedding, or vice versa.

Fourth, when I tell you to pose like Y, you know exactly what I mean because, oh hey we’ve done this before! This means that photos on your wedding day go waaaay faster, and you have more time to spend with the people you love and care about. Which is exactly what you should be doing on your wedding day, not going over details with the photographer.

Oh! And lastly? If we do an engagement session, you will be totally used to me telling you to get all lovey and nuzzle and smooch etc. and then pointing a big lens right into your faces. I’m not gonna lie, that can get a little weird. But if we’ve done it before and laughed at the ridiculousness of it and you’ve seen that the photos are awesome, then on your big day it’s no big deal. Which is how it should be.

Happy Valentine’s Day to all the newly engaged couples out there. Today would be a great day to start practicing that camera ready kiss.

Step 1: Lean In     Step 2: Meet Lips     Step 3: Eyes Closed     Step 4: Let it Linger

More amazing kisses here.

With Tom and Kristen, we tried something different… studio engagement portraits. Novel idea huh? Well, when it’s cold and gray outside, sometimes it’s best to get back to basics. Personally, I love how these turned out and hope you all do too. By the way, aren’t these two cute? We were definitely having fun, it was Tom’s birthday after all!