Photo Props & Backstories

So before I share our engagement pictures, I just wanted to touch on a few more props that we used.

I didn't want to use too many props, as I wanted to keep the photos focused on us and the locations, but I did have a few ideas I wanted to incorporate. 

I already showed you the very difficult process of making the fleur-de-lis date sign, which we did use. 

We also used the "Just Engaged" buttons that Disney gives out for free. Yep, there are free things at WDW. I think these are adorable if you got engaged at Disney or are just a fan, no matter where your pictures are. "Just" is a pushing it here, since we were "just" engaged eight months before, but who's counting right?

We wore our buttons every day during our engagement-moon!  Sphinx also had a birthday button!

Just a little closer look. 

They also have "Happily Ever After" buttons, if that's more your style. I collected all of the celebration buttons during my time there as a cast member, but these buttons have a good story behind them.

After fireworks, the proposal, and dinner at the Contemporary Resort, we went downstairs to return to the car, and asked a cast member behind the front desk to take our picture in front of their Christmas tree. When we told her what had just happened, she ran back over to the desk, slapped her hands down and shouted "I NEED BUTTONS! THEY JUST GOT ENGAGED!" Her enthusiasm made me laugh and reminded me how awesome the people who work at Disney are. 

Another prop came around when we were in December on the engagement trip, our parents sent us a lovely gift to the hotel room:

 Pretty package with bride & groom ears, champagne glasses, chocolates and one of my favorite wines. FMIL specifically changed it from the sparkling cider to this one, because she's awesome and loves Rosa Regale too.

We got the Groom Mickey ears embroidered with our wedding date, so that we could use them in the photos. I didn't worry about the Bride Minnie, since it had the veil.

And I liked the idea of using it like this:

So you can still see one person's face./Photo by Concept Photography.

The last prop required me to pull out the paint brushes again.  You may have noticed I'm not against pulling straight from my inspiration and this one is no exception. 

I saw this on a local photographer's site:

Who Dat nation represents/source: Lauren Carroll Photography

But we're bigger LSU fans overall (but we still love our Saints!), and definitely had to incorporate that somehow, so I went with this cheer instead (It's pronounced, "GO," obviously):

Sphinx requested the "Tigers" sign. This also works with our wedding colors!/Personal photo

I just used two pre-cut wooden pieces from Hobby Lobby, and some acrylic paint.  I didn't mess around with the stickers this time.  I had to take two passes at this, because my first wasn't spaced right. Paint over it - try again! I was more careful with the letters, and used a tiny brush to clean up the edges, and a stiff brush to "erase" any purple with the gold paint that needed to be fixed. I think I might leave any painting jobs to the professionals or a more artistic friend for wedding items! But, I was happy with how it turned out, and we got some cute pictures out of it!

Oh, you want to see how it looked in pictures? It was featured in the teaser from the photographers:

Photo by Concept Photography. This was posted on Facebook the day we took our pictures.

And that's all we had. It was better to keep it to a few props, as we had to carry these around with us and find a good place to use each, and I don't think our shoot was overwhelmed by props.

Did you use props in any photos or did you skip them altogether?  Any personal stories behind them?