So let me give you a quick back story behind the genesis of this photo shoot. During one of my Christmas visits, I noticed the mister was hovering around one of those photography studios at the mall. We’ve been together for three years at that point and we don’t have too many pictures of us and I got it in my head that if we were going to have professional pictures, we should go all out. I floated the idea to my friend, Ed Pingol, and thankfully he agreed to shoot us.

We met in downtown Benicia for our one hour session. In the beginning, it was a little weird posing and being all purposely affectionate in front of people while someone was taking our picture, but after a while you get used to it and kind of forget about the guy with the camera [no offense Eddie!]. The best thing about Eddie is he’s really personable and easy to get along with, plus, he’s pretty funny and prefers to show you how he wants you to pose instead of just telling you. That is actually my favorite part.

We had some direction during the shoot but overall, he let us move around freely within the poses. Some of my favorite pictures are those where we were joking around and talking about other random things.

Overall, it was a great day and I am so glad we now have fantastic pictures of us! This is why I always wish I could just have a photographer on staff to follow us around. I smile whenever I look at these pictures because you can really see the love we have for one another. Is that a shallow thing to say about us? I would wait for someone else to say it, but you know, I’m just not that patient. Or humble. Whatever. We love each other. So there!

I HIGHLY recommend having an engagement session with your photographer. It will help ease you into being comfortable in front of the camera [while I practically live in front of a camera, it still took me a few shots before I was fully comfortable with this set up] as well as develop a rapport with your photographer. So if you get the opportunity, definitely do it! You won’t be sorry.

How did your engagement session go? What was your favorite part? And please share a link to your favorite picture if you have any!

So the mister was just out here recently visiting for a week [so recent that he just left Thursday!] and it was a fantastic visit, though not without it’s rough moments but hey, that’s life right? We did get the full court press on wedding plans from my bestie’s husband, which revealed a disconnect between our personal visions for our wedding [bad because we'll have to discuss it again but good because it's always a good thing to know what the other is thinking] but the most exciting thing?

No, not an engagement. That’s not happening for a little bit. So sit still.

We got our pictures taken!

I know, what’s the big deal over pictures? We have a good amount of pictures together though most are of the one-armed self-portrait variety like these:

As you can see, I’m pretty good so I don’t have any complaints but we were both excited to have our pictures professionally done.

I set up the details with my friend Eddie as a surprise after the mister and I figured out the dates for his visit. I’ve known Eddie for a while now…I think we first met in high school [he went to the rival high school but we had a mutual friend] and I’ve known his wife since junior high, so we go back a ways. So who is this Eddie? He just so happens to be a pretty awesome wedding photographer. If my plans succeed, he’ll also be shooting our wedding. I hope, I hope, I hope!

Here’s a little taste of his work:

Eddie shot my sister’s graduation pictures and I’ve been following his blog for a while so I know we were in good hands. And it was so much fun! He’s a genuinely happy guy and real easy to get along with so our hour long shoot was filled with jokes and laughter. He even explained why he shot at certain angles and how he could get a multitude of shots from just a few poses. It was a little weird at first posing in front of complete strangers [everyone stops to watch a photo shoot] but after a while I didn’t even notice them anymore. And I noticed that my smiles were not forced at all. Not once did I feel my mouth twitch as it usually does when I’m holding a smile too long. Everything just flowed. Maybe it has more to do with the person I was taking pictures with.

I am so excited to see what he captured. The teasers should be up in a few weeks so I’ll be stalking my Google reader until then. I’ll post a few of the teasers and then once I get the dvd of photos, I’ll go through and share my favorites from the day.

Have any of you thought of doing a photo shoot before getting engaged? Or if you’re engaged, how was your engagement shoot experience?