Our Engagement Pictures

Hello there! I'm excited to share our beautiful engagement photos by the wonderful Laura Jude of Optical Amusements. She is truly a gifted photographer and story teller, and happens to be super personable and fun while doing it!

Now for those of  you who know Dan, you probably could have guessed that this was not his favorite activity. However, he was a trooper and listened to Laura as she guided us through our session.

Laura did an awesome job of guiding us when we needed it and letting us do what was natural when it was appropriate. I honestly felt awkward at first (really not used to posing for pictures) but it got much smoother as the session went on.

Choosing where we wanted to take pictures was a bit difficult. There are so many beautiful places in Portland. We ended up deciding on places that had special meaning to us. In the end we shot in three different places- at a coffee shop that we both love, at our house and in our yard (to easily incorporate the dog without worrying about him) and at a park we usually take Scout to.

These offered a diverse mix of back grounds that were all meaningful to us. Plus, we were able to get some pictures in our new home. Our wedding will be in New Jersey, so it was really special to be able to get some pictures in Portland as well.

As for deciding what to wear, we ended up making a last minute \decision that morning. We did some more casual pictures and some that were a bit more dressed up (which means Dan was wearing a button down and jeans- this is dressed up for him). I wanted to make sure we looked like we would on a normal day. That way the pictures would be more authentic to who we are today.  However, there was a frantic call to one of my girl friends to ensure that I made the right dress selection. She was amazing help as usual and directed me in the right direction (thank you FoodieNextDoor!).

In general, I know a lot of photographers add in engagement sessions into their wedding packages. If that's the case, I'd definitely recommend you take advantage of it. While we ended up not doing that (we have 2 friends who are photographers, so one is covering our wedding and one did our engagement sessions) I'm really glad we took these pictures. It really takes the pressure off of getting every single shot that I want at our wedding. Plus these pictures are much more "us" than our wedding pictures will be. We are usually pretty casual people, so I'm glad we were able to get a bunch of amazing pictures that really feel genuine.

I found it super helpful to browse other people's engagement pictures to get ideas of poses and looks that I liked. Thank you Pinterest. Hope you enjoy them as much as we do!