I Flip Flop on Engagement Photos

Can we be for really-real for a second? I kind of hated engagement photos.  They can be pretty awkward, it's more than a hundred photos of a couple staring at each other and kissing. As nice as it is for you to have professional photos, isn't it weird seeing a bunch of poses of just two people?  And why are you on train tracks? Do you normally hang out on train tracks? What's the point?

So yes, I admit it, I was an engagement shoot cynic years before Sphinx and I were engaged. Chalk it up to being jealous of those who were having weddings and able to take pictures, but that was my outlook.  Sure I figured we would do it to get used to the photographer if it was offered in the package, but it wasn't a priority.

(On the topic of awkward engagement shoots, click here if you want a great laugh! Awful Engagement Shoots, sent to me by a friend "for inspiration.")

However, as time went on and my (pre-)bride brain became more pronounced, I started noticing that there were some amazing engagement shoots out there! Some of those were on the Bee, but I know that I was initially swayed by Best Man J's pictures. They are a gorgeous couple, and their location and styling was something totally new to me!  They were at this amazing historic house called Race & Religious and they were styled like they were going out and returning for a night on the town and it turned out awesome.

BM J and his beautiful wife had me reconsidering the engagement photos./Photo by: Sarah Mattix Photography

So I was down for engagement pictures if we could make them really special.  So once we were engaged, we needed to figure out how to make them special!

Oh, Hive, I can't lie to you.  There was no question of what we were going to do.

I can't remember what mysterious internet rabbit hole led me there, but around the time I was warming up to the idea of engagement pictures (because of M & J's) I found the Magical Day Weddings blog and followed their engagement photo section for about a year before even getting engaged.

Carousel Engagement Photos/Source: Magical Day Weddings/ Photo by: Wildflower Photos

It's engagement photos.  At DISNEY parks!

To recap, we are both big Disney fans, especially of the parks.  It's the prime destination spot for both of our families - as children and adults.  It's where we got engaged.  I even spent a semester working at EPCOT (any CPs out there?).  But we are not having a Disney destination wedding.  So we are representing our special memories at Disney with our engagement photos! Even before a ring was in sight, I shared this idea with Sphinx and he was on board for when the time came. So of course my favorite Orlando photographer was the first vendor I emailed post-proposal. 

Oh, you mean you thought I wouldn't have a photographer picked out for this before the planning? How little you know me! Okay, actually you don't know me.  You're excused.

In those pre-engagement days months I did a lot of internet searching for wedding things.  Just getting prepared and figure out what was out there, you know? And in that searching, I found Concept Photography and may have stalked their incredible blog and Facebook page too, halting everything I was doing whenever I saw a new post up.  I knew that I just had to have them and the Magic Kingdom for our engagement photos.

All above photos by Concept Photography

Need any more convincing? (You'd better not, I have a hundred more of these on my Pinterest page. Don't make me bust those out!)

I love all of the bright colors, the beautiful buildings, the ability to have just the right amount of goofiness and fun in the photos - it's totally us. 

And did you notice something about these pictures? They aren't centered around mouse ears and characters, singing "M-I-C! K-E-Y!"  if you get what I mean.  It was important for me that our pictures be pretty, not cheesy.  I'm hoping we get a good mix of some Disney shots (on the rides, with the castle, and even some with our bride & groom ears) as well as beautiful, classy pictures with a nice backdrop.  Like we are just wandering the parks in fancy duds, PDAing all on each other, and getting that captured on film.  Totally normal, right?

We did run into a couple of bumps with logistics here.  We live in New Orleans, but we have annual passes, and we go to WDW in the fall for the Food & Wine Festival.  Unfortunately, the photography husband/wife duo of my dreams is out of town on a destination wedding the week we will be there (but seriously, go look at their beach wedding posts. And then look at them again, you'll still be drooling).  I tried to set up photos with another photographer, whose work I liked, for that week but that didn't pan out.  (You want to only send me printed copies of 20 of my photos and I have to pay an extra $1000 for separate software to download digital files? No.way.)

In the end it worked out for the better.  I know I would have always dreamed about Concept Photography if I hadn't been able to get them.  So we made a separate trip there to take our pictures with my first choice (engagement) photographer!  And we got all the photos through a download with full print rights!

I know what you're thinking - what about all the crowds and people in the background of your shots? Well, going into the park early helps to minimize that problem, and we went at a not too crowded time of the year. But most importantly, these guys are pros so I wasn't too worried about it it - I think these kinds of shots are amazing::

We also have some DIY props for the pictures, so stay tuned for those posts!

What are your thoughts on engagement pictures? Did they change after you got engaged?  And did you travel for your engagement pictures or am I the only one that obsessed with pictures?