Ultimate Wedding Week ~ Engagement Pictures

Our Ultimate Wedding Linky Party is finally here, and I am SO excited to share my wedding AND see all of your beautiful weddings!  Today our theme is "Engagement Photos" over at Just a Touch of Gray.  Be sure to link up!

Today I am sharing our favorite engagement pictures, our guest book, and our Save The Date!

We took our engagement photos in February of 2010, and it was seriously one of the coldest days ever!   I wanted our pictures outside around my family's home and around Dallas.  It was a little crazy coordinating schedules.  I lived in Dallas, my fiance was living in Los Angeles, and our photographer was out of Cincinnati!  So, we all found a weekend to meet in Dallas, and had a blast during this session! 

When planning my wedding, I found it helpful to make a list of aspects of the wedding that I really cared about, and aspects that I didn't care that much about.  We created a budget that reflected these priorities, which made the planning much easier.  The photography was definitely on the top of my list.  After looking at several photographers, we decided to go with Kortnee Kate Photography out of Cincinnati.  My older sister is the owner of Viva Bella Events in Cincinnati, so she helped me find some amazing vendors to make our day perfect! 

Kortnee flew down for our engagement session and did such an amazing job.  She truly captured who we are, and I am so happy with how they turned out!

We chose to do our pictures in a field near my parents house, a coffee shop, an old diner, and in an artsy area in downtown Dallas.  When choosing where to take engagement pictures, I think it is really important to have variety.  Choose places that are important to you, and also different areas of town.  This brings out different aspects of your personality as a couple, and gives you a good range of pictures to choose from.  

I want to share the rest of our favorite pictures by showing you our guest book!  Our photographers compiled our favorite images and created a book for our guests to sign at our wedding.  I was so glad we decided to do this, and I love seeing it on our coffee table every morning.

Here is also a peak at our Save The Date!  We hired Amy Owens of Amo-Ink, also out of Cincinnati, for all of our wedding stationary.  She created a postcard for us, which is a great low-cost option!

I wanted to leave you with my top tips for an Engagement Session:

1.  Choose a photographer you love - research, look at portfolios, and make sure their style is what you are envisioning for your wedding.

2.  Choose a few different locations so you have variety in your photos.

3.  Choose 2-3 different outfits that are not too busy.  Pops of bright color work great!

4.  Relax and have fun!  This was seriously so fun for my fiance and I - such a fun bonding day!

I hope you all liked seeing some of our engagement photos!  I can't wait to see all of your engagement pictures over at Just a Touch of Gray today!  Happy first day of The Ultimate Wedding Linky Party!

Check out the schedule below and be sure to link up!