Oh my wonderful!  I just viewed the photos from our engagement shoot last month and boy do I love them.  Angela Stott, our very talented photographer, did an amazing job - she found funky, interesting places to shoot and was able to capture such great shots of us.  I have to admit that on our drive home from the shoot Brian and I worried that our pictures might not turn out, not due to any fault of Angela’s, but because Brian and I just felt so silly most of the time - would our awkwardness come through in the pictures?!

Well, we spent the two hours home from Asheville worrying about nothing.  Check these puppies out (all by Angela Stott):

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Bryce and Coady’s engagement session is special to me for a few reasons. First, I know the groom-to-be Bryce. He is such a smart and fun guy and these photos express his personality so well. Second, Amy from Angela Anderson Photography is just SO talented. And lastly, I just adore how my city is shown off in the places that Bryce and Coady chose for their session.

I do believe I have a new favorite photo. The lighting, the cars… just everything! Michigan Avenue photos are usually so cliche, but not this one.

The train tracks make such an awesome backdrop for photos. These few, at the Quincy stop, are fabulous.

{Just look at this one - the hair blowing in the breeze. You can’t buy perfection like that.}

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Sorry for the late post today everyone! EAD moved servers over the weekend, and if you’re seeing this post we have liftoff at our new home. It’s very exciting, as things should be faster around here. :) I have two engagement sessions to post today and they are both fabulous (even if they are late)!

The first comes from the wonderful Natalie Moser - you may remember Natalie, as she’s been on EAD before (she photographed Lyndsy and Elon’s awesome wedding) and I’m so excited to have her back! Today we’re featuring Cheryl and Ryan’s Balboa Pier engagement session, which could not be more adorable!

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ack!  So I’m sorry for being MIA lately…I have good reasons…some of which I’ll share with you all very soon!  But I just COULD NOT WAIT to show you some of our Love Shoot pics!!  Khara is pretty much awesome and a half…and well…we’re kinda cute too :)

LOVE this black and white one…

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After being rained out during one of the apocalyptic rainstorms we’ve had recently here in Chicago, Jill, Mike and I rescheduled and thankfully had a lovely day to work with, although we did get a taste of true summer temperatures. Jill and Mike love nature, so we planned a session a bit outside of the normal urban sessions I tend to shoot. We had a delightful time wandering through beautiful fields, talking about running and the merits of city vs. country, while trying to avoid fish and snakes.

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Dan and Mary, Dan and Mary….where to begin? During sessions, a couple’s willingness to be open really impacts the photographs. I feel very lucky to have a close relationship, more of a friendship, with most of my clients, which leads to more natural photographs that help to showcase the relationship between the couple. That said, I can think of three couples I’ve shot who were just staggeringly open, and really willing to let me document how they really, truly are, and Dan and Mary were one of them. When this happens it is incredibly humbling for me and makes me feel so lucky to do what I do. I told Dan and Mary they need to start giving consultations to other couples on how to be uninhibited; maybe I’ll ask them to write some tips… They are getting married this September in a lovely wedding at Volo filled with great food and their closest friends.

With that said, thank you so much, Dan and Mary, for spending some time shooting with me. I hope you love these as much as I do.

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Last March, like Kasia, we had the good fortune of winning a free engagement session with the lovely and talented Jessamyn Harris. The contest called for a unique idea for an engagement shoot, so I sent in the story of how the boy and I ate noodles at 2 in the morning while we were still getting to know each other. It was a really dirty hole in the wall, the kind of place where the smell sticks to you and you have to wash your clothes afterward. I loved it.

Unfortunately it got torn down, so as a commemoration to that first night, I thought it’d be sweet to take pictures at another noodle joint. We met Jessamyn in San Francisco Chinatown, and she was ready with her cameras, some sample albums to show us, and FOOD!

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As you read, my fiance and I recently took a practice engagement shoot with my sister.  Good thing we did, because if I dare say so myself, we did a lot better on our real engagement shoot.  And guess what?  They’re here!  I just got home and unwrapped the most fantastic gift I’ve received to date - my 225 incredible engagement photos by the fabulous Melissa Murphy of Missy Photography (whose services we won in a blog contest back in March!).

The contest I won was originally for Missy’s services and photos for the wedding day and day-after, but when I requested we switch the day-after shoot for e-photos in NYC (Dave and my previous stomping ground and Missy’s current one), she happily obliged.  I’m sure glad she did because I am obsessed.  Not only are the pictures, the color quality and artistic shots breathtaking, but I am downright giddy and 100% in love that we have pictures at Columbia University, our alma mater, where we spent 70% of our dating relationship.  I can’t wait to show our kids the photos and point out the places we used to sit at, drink at, eat at, picnic at, meet up, etc.  I have just become a huge supporter of picking engagement photo locations that mean something to you rather than pretty sites - although if they’re also beautiful, it doesn’t hurt.  :)

Finally, before I share with you some of my favorites - I just wanted to mention Missy.  The reason I entered the contest is because I loved Missy’s photography (and had it vetted by a dozen family members before I entered), so I was confident I would be happy with our photos.  Naturally however, since I hadn’t yet met her, I was nervous about our rapport.  Within 5 seconds of meeting Missy however, I realized it was impossible not to like her, and rather, I fell in love with her!  She is super sweet, laid back, talented, easy going and cute, but also gives you enough direction so that you don’t look like a fool lost in space walking around.  Dave and I are ecstatic that she is our photographer and already, I give her a high recommendation.  Not only is she fabulous, but she sent me the edited photos within a week~!

Ok, here are some of my favorites from the ones Missy posted online.  (As you can see, I nearly posted them all, it’s so hard to choose - there are SO many I love).   I also have a gazillion others I love that will be revealed at later days (probably as STDs or guestbook photos).  You can also find more on Missy’s blog.

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Dave and I will be in NYC this weekend, amongst other things, to take engagement photos with our fairy godmother (a.k.a. Missy, whose wedding and e-photo services we won via a blog contest!). We have a gazillion photos of the two of us from around the world so I wasn’t at all anxious about the upcoming e-session - until we did a trial run a couple of weekend ago (umm, am I turning into a bridezilla? Practice engagement photos?). After that session, I realized that until thatpoint, all our pictures had been variations of the same photo format! Dave on the right, Kasia on the left, with landmark behind us.  Effective but boring.

Us skiing in Vermont

So a couple of weekends ago, my family and I were in Chicago at my parent’s house for their annual 4th of July party. Since both my fiancé and my sister were there, I asked them if we could go down to our neighborhood beach to take some pictures. Although she started out as a mommy blogger, my sister has developed into a ridiculously talented photographer, by documenting the last 7 years of her children’s lives.

Ready, set, go - I grab Dave’s hand and start walking him down the beach while my sister starts snapping away.

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I have never regretted our decision to not do an engagement session.  I didn’t think it was necessary for us, and I never saw a photo shoot I felt like I couldn’t live without.

Until now…

As you know, we were engaged in Paris.  So when I came across this photo shoot on this blog that was found on this blog taken by this photographer.

–I fell in love–

These are so incredibly romantic!  I just can’t stand it-and we must go back to Paris ASAP to recreate this session!

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OK, there is only one word that can be used to describe Ashley and Harold’s vintage planes and trains-themed engagement session, photographed by the uber-talented Christina Carroll.  WOW.

Harold has his pilot’s license and they both love vintage, hence the planes and trains theme!  And now I’m going to let Christina’s amazing photos and Harold and Ashley’s beauty speak for themselves…

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I am just loving these engagement photos taken in San Francisco by Steve Koo, a fabulous Chicago-based photographer.  Amanda and Matt are marrying in Chicago but reside in San Francisco and wanted their engagement photos to reflect their home.

You guys, all engagement sessions should be this fabulous.

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