Thinking about engagement photos

Thinking about engagement photos

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• 8.21.2010

You all know I'm getting married next year, so I was hoping to get your thoughts about engagement photos!  I'm a little overwhelmed by the whole idea, but I know I want to do them.

I've sort of picked up the idea that engagement shoots are a relatively new thing, and my mom thinks they're sort of frivolous.  But, they're fun, and I want to do one!  I would love if you would all share your opinions of engagement photos... good? Bad?  Seems to me that, if nothing else, they're a good way to ensure that you have a good photo of you and your betrothed, since sometimes that's hard to get with snapshots.  And, they make great photos to send along with the save-the-date.  But they can be good or bad, I'm sure... as creative people, what do you look for in an engagement shoot?  What things do you think make them look classy, funky, cool, interesting, or...?

I have a photographer friend who has generously volunteered to take our engagement photos, so now I am thinking all over the place about what type of pics I want, and where, and with what attitude, and, most importantly, what should I wear?  ;)

Here are some photos I've found online that are just gorgeous, and different than your basic guy-and-girl-in-love-in-jeans-in-a-park photos (which are fine, I like those too, but I wanted more variety to look over).  I Googled "Portland engagement shoots" or something similar to get ideas for some great places in Portland to take engagement photos--and, boy, do I have a list going now!  We'll have to narrow it down, but I have a lot of ideas!  Anyway, here are some gorgeous photos from Portland- and Seattle-area photographers.

Photos courtesy of Lauren Brooks Photography

Photos courtesy of Mastin Studio

Photos courtesy of Steep Street Photography

Some beautiful images, huh?  I am still overwhelmed by the tons of options for settings and backgrounds, but I have realized I tend to like the outdoor ones best (most of them are outdoors), and I like the ones with vintage-ey inspired clothes ;)!  Not sure how Jason will feel about sporting a newsboy cap, but he is usually a good sport about weird clothes I get for him.  But what should I wear?!?
If any of you have seen great engagement shoots around the blogosphere, leave me a link to visit!  Or please, let me know your advice for getting great couples photos and what things to aim for.
This whole wedding planning thing is fun and exciting but very overwhelming!  We've still got almost a year till the wedding, but I want to do the engagement photos a good length of time before to get it out of the way, have the pics for our wedding info and send-outs, and take them in summer, my fave season here in beautiful Oregon!
So, what's your advice?