Wedding: Engagement Photos – Behind the Scenes

The Setting

When I asked Cat to take our engagement photos last month, I told her we were having a winter wedding and wanted some photos that fit the rustic look. She sent me this inspiration photo and asked if this is what I had in mind.

It was perfect.

We found a weekend that worked for us and I began the search for a wooded park/ trail that would work as an ideal location. Thanks to twitter, I found Lettuce Lake Park near USF. The location was perfect with a great wooded area, open trails, and plenty of spots to choose from for photos. We planned to meet an hour before sunset for ideal lighting.

When we arrived, Cat was setting up. She brought in a table, chairs, and other various props for the whimsical romantic shoot.

We took a few photos at the table, laying in the trees, and walking the park.

In the end, the setting was perfect. I loved the moss on the trees and how the light from the sun setting hit everything with just the right hue of golden yellow rays. Gorgeous.

The Hair

Thanks to all of your wonderful advice on what to do with my hair for the photos, I decided to get a blow out the morning of the engagement photo shoot.

I have a tendency to over schedule myself (Saturday’s schedule: 7:00am – Run, 9:00am – Yoga, 11:30am – family arrives in town, 12:00pm – lunch with friends and family, 2:00pm – appointment to try on wedding dresses, 4:30pm – photos) and knew the only free time I had would be in between my yoga class (9:00am) and when my family arrived (11:30am) to have it done. My friend Mary recommended her salon (Level2 in Hyde Park – if you’re a local!), which just happened to be across the street from the Lululemon Store I had my yoga class at. Perfect.

After class I ran across the street to see if they could squeeze me in for a quick styling. As luck would have it, they had ONE free appointment. I only had to wait 10 minutes before Stephanie introduced herself as my stylist and asked what I had in mind. Until that point I really had no idea, but as soon as I saw her long soft curls I asked if there was anyway she could replicate them with my hair. She told me no problem and worked her magic.

The finished hair was amazing. At first I was afraid of my hair looking too big, too overdone, or just unnatural for the photos (some of the comments from the previous post had scared me just a bit), but when I looked in the mirror I thought it was just perfect. It’s exactly how I always want my hair to be, I just have no clue how to do it for myself.

When she finished, I gave Stephanie a big hug, a big tip, and booked another appointment to have my hair cut in two weeks (it needs it!). I think she just earned a lifelong customer.

I’m not sure 100% what Stephanie did, but those were magic curls. They were light, flowy, and lasted all day. They survived the heat, humidity, wind, 2 hours of trying on wedding dresses, eitc and still looked perfect for the 4:30pm photo shoot. I’m telling you – magic curls!

The Clothes

A few weeks ago I found a set of engagement photos on Facebook that featured a girl in a lace dress. I LOVED the look of the lace dress in the photos and knew I wanted something similar for my own photos.

And so the search for a lace dress began. I shopped the mall, I shopped online, and I put out a plea across all social media platforms looking for ‘the dress.’ Within the week I had an email from a sweet reader named Lacey who told me she had a similar dress and offered to let me borrow it for the photo shoot. The dress looked GORGEOUS on her in the photos. I crossed every finger, toe, arm, and leg that it would fit when it arrived.

I tried it on almost as soon as it landed on my doorstep. It was perfect.

I owe Lacey times a million. Times a million and one.

We had two outfit changes. For the first look I wore the ivory lace dress and Derek wore my favorite argyle sweater with jeans. This was our ‘fancy’ look.

The second set was a bit more casual. The day before I found a plain white cotton dress at Target. I paired the dress with cowboy boots and my favorite jean jacket. Derek wore a navy (one of our wedding colors) polo with jeans.

The After

Cat is fast! On Monday I received an email with our proofs and we’re currently going through and selecting our favorites. I can’t wait to share them when I get the final photos!

Psstt.. all the above photos (minus the Pinterest photos) were taken by my mom. Her and my dad just happened to be in town this past weekend and wanted to tag along for the photo shoot. They had a little fun with the camera while we were having our photos taken.

Love it.