engagements

Unveiling the Beauty of Engagement Portraits in Nashville - Corrin and Josh - Destination Wedding Photographer

Love fills the air in Nashville, Tennessee, as couples embrace the enchanting atmosphere and vibrant energy of the city. One beautiful way to celebrate this love is through engagement portraits. These timeless photographs not only capture the essence of a couple's unique connection but also serve as cherished mementos for years to come.

As photographers who specialize in destination portraits, we offer our clients the opportunity to go anywhere they want for their engagement session. Corrin and Josh decided on Nashville for their engagement portraits. We did some portraits in the city and then went into the countryside to provide a different background opportunity.

In this blog post, we will explore the magic of engagement portraits in Nashville and why this picturesque city is the perfect backdrop for capturing your love story.

1. The Romantic Charm of Nashville: Nashville, known as Music City, has a distinctive charm that captivates hearts. Its combination of Southern hospitality, rich history, and lively music scene creates an unparalleled ambiance for engagement portraits. From the iconic skyline and historic landmarks to the hidden gems scattered throughout the city, Nashville offers a multitude of stunning locations that add depth and character to your photographs.

2. Unforgettable Backdrops: Nashville boasts a diverse range of captivating backdrops for engagement portraits. Couples can choose to capture their love amidst the rustic beauty of the rolling hills and barns, or they can opt for an urban feel with the city's vibrant murals and trendy streets. The picturesque parks, such as Centennial Park or Shelby Park, provide lush greenery and peaceful settings, while the Cumberland River and its bridges offer a touch of romance and serenity. The options are endless, ensuring that each couple can find a location that truly represents their unique love story.

3. A Melody of Colors: Nashville embraces color in all its glory, making it an ideal canvas for engagement portraits. The city's vibrant street art, blooming flowers, and lush landscapes create a captivating tapestry of hues that breathe life into your photographs. Whether you desire a lively and energetic palette or a softer, more romantic ambiance, Nashville offers a myriad of colors that will enhance the beauty of your portraits.

4. Seasonal Splendor: Nashville experiences the full spectrum of seasons, each offering its own unique beauty. The city transforms into a winter wonderland during the snowy months, while spring ushers in an explosion of blossoms and vibrant colors. Summers are marked by warm golden sunsets, and the breathtaking foliage of autumn adds a touch of enchantment to engagement portraits. Whatever season captures your heart, Nashville has the perfect backdrop to complement the ambiance and emotions you wish to convey.

5. Partnering with a Skilled Photographer: To truly capture the magic of your love story, it is essential to partner with a skilled photographer who understands Nashville's unique charm. A professional engagement photographer familiar with the city's best locations and able to guide you through the process will ensure that your portraits are a true reflection of your love and the spirit of Music City.

Nashville, with its romantic charm, picturesque backdrops, vibrant colors, and seasonal splendor, is a city that ignites the imagination and celebrates love. Engagement portraits taken in Nashville are not just photographs; they are a testament to the everlasting bond shared between two people. As you embark on this exciting journey towards marriage, the enchantment of Nashville can serve as the perfect backdrop for your engagement portraits, preserving the essence of your love story for generations to come.

Here are the rest from their engagement portrait session in Nashville!

Italy Wedding and Engagement Portraits | Venice, Rome, Florence and Milan | Destination Pictures

Want some amazing wedding or engagement portraits? Italy does not disappoint. It is a wedding photographer’s dream and we were fortunately able to spend a week touring and photographing different parts of the country.

This couple joined us in Italy on one of our destination portrait sessions. We traveled to Venice, Rome, Florence and Milan and took wedding and engagement portraits for them.

We started off in Venice and photographed St Mark’s square, in front of gondolas and the surrounding area/canals. These portraits feature a red dress for her and a casual suit for him. It matched the architecture perfectly.

We then took a train to Rome. We photographed the couple in their wedding attire for wedding type portraits. We spent a couple hours at sunrise photographing in front the Coliseum. Pro tip… to avoid crowds, go at sunrise. Be sure to be finished by 8am before the first tour busses arrive. This will allow you to take portraits with minimal tourists. No one wants a million tourist in their wedding portraits, right?

After Rome, we took a train to Florence for a couple of nights. We rented Vespas and took a trip into wine country to photograph in vineyards. This was a fun and relaxing day. We took engagement type portraits for this session as we were limited in what we could bring with us on the Vespas.

Finally, we finished in Milan and the iconic church in the center of the shopping district. This shoot was late at night, again to try to avoid a million tourists in the square. We used a long flowy yellow dress to give it a fashion type look.

This trip was AMAZING. We got to provide an amazing destination portrait experience for our client and they got to spend a week touring Italy. If you are getting married, think about doing your wedding portraits in Italy :)

Enjoy some of the images we captured!

Why Consider a Destination Engagement Session?

You are engaged!! Now it is time to start planning your engagement portrait session. But where do you do these portraits? Do you take them at the beautiful park close to your town? Do you take them at a location that is special to you and your fiancé? Do you go to the beach? A theme park? Some other place your photographer suggests? The location of your wedding?

None of those are wrong answers. They are all valid locations to use for your engagement portraits. But what if there was someplace you didnt think about? What if there were some amazing locations that you didnt know about? This is where destination engagement portraits come into play.

The idea behind the engagement session isnt only to provide you with some pretty images of you and your fiancé as a couple to display at the wedding and throughout your home. It isnt only to get to know the photographer a bit more. The engagement session is more than all of that. Yes, those reasons are important and reasons to take engagement portraits, but the real reason that you do them is the experience it creates with your fiancé.

Destination sessions help create an amazing experience for you as a couple. You get to get away for a bit. You get to explore new locations. You get to enjoy each other’s company… AND you get images NONE of your friends will have. All of that creates an experience you will never forget. Let’s be real. That session at the local park, while it produces great pictures, it doesnt really have meaning attached to it. You met your photographer at the park. There really isnt much of an experience created from it, so in 20 years, you will likely forget most of the session.

But if you travel somewhere for your portraits, spend a day or two (or a week) exploring that location, getting away from the busy lives that we all live…. then that session will mean something to you later on. I have no met a couple who has not remembered every aspect of their trip with us, whether that was flying to Minnesota in February to get some portraits in the snow or flying to Ireland to explore castles.

Destination sessions offer an unique opportunity to have an amazing experience. Perhaps you should consider traveling for your engagement portrait session and getting portraits which you will cherish forever.

Ireland - Elopement and Engagement Portraits

We are a US based photography company that specializes in Destination Portrait Experiences. We plan portrait trips to various locations and provide our clients with AMAZING portraits in some of the most beautiful places in the world. These trips are great for engagement portraits, wedding portraits, family pictures or elopements.

This will be one of two posts about this couple. I met Josh and Amber through a photography conference that I speak at. For years, we have been talking about taking a trip together. We finally made it happen and we went to Ireland. They later joined us on a trip to Italy for more fun portrait sessions.

This post is about our Ireland adventure. We spent a week touring the country and doing photoshoots. We did engagement portraits as well as wedding/elopment type portraits. We slept in a castle and did photoshoots at different castle ruins as well as the iconic locations of the Cliffs of Moher and Giants Causeway.

One thing about Ireland is there is beauty everywhere you look. We didnt have to go far before we saw old castle ruins or beautiful green fields. Ireland is a great place for your engagement, elopement or wedding portraits. These can be before your wedding takes place (as you see here) or even after your wedding for a post wedding session.

Enjoy what we created!

Engagement Session Tips

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First of all, congratulations on your engagement! Its an exciting, and often stressful (planning), time leading up to your wedding day. This post is meant to help you check off one thing from your planning list… The Engagement Session.

Should we do an engagement session?

Yes… Absolutely. But why?

Engagement portraits are one of the things that are most neglected when it comes to planning for the wedding. Many people have busy schedules and trying to fit an engagement session into the chaos doesnt sound too exciting. Many people feel that they have plenty of portraits together and dont really need new ones taken. Many dont even know what to do with the portraits after they are taken, so dont really have a desire to do them. Some just do them out of “obligation” to do them. If you skip the engagement session, you are doing yourself a disservice. This is a very short period of your time together, take advantage of it and make the most of it.

The engagement session gives you a chance to work with your photographer before the wedding. That is a key to getting great wedding images. This will give you a chance to see how the photographer works, how they give direction, how they do posing, etc. Its important to get all the camera awkwardness out before the wedding day. Consider this a dry run. If there are angles or things you dont like, you can let the photographer know during this session, rather than letting them photograph the wedding and then telling them you dont like something. Its too late by then.

The session also gives you images to display throughout your home that will be different than wedding portraits. Its great to have diversity of the images displayed in your home. Its also a great way to document that part of your life for years down the road. Without the engagement session and with wedding portraits only, your family wont get a complete picture of who you are. Generally engagement portraits are more personality portraits in the sense it shows off things you like. For example, if you love the beach, your engagement portraits will likely be on the beach.

If you decide not to do these portraits, you are missing out on that experience. When was the last time you had portraits taken by a professional photographer? Most people havent had them done since high school.. and even fewer have had them with their now fiance. The engagement session gives you a chance to have an experience. These sessions consist of more than just showing up, snapping a few pictures, and going about your day. Most photographer provide a complete experience that you would be missing out on.

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Picking a Photographer

The first thing you want to do is find a photographer you love. Make sure you view the images on their websites and on social media. Dont be afraid to ask them to show you full sessions so you can see how they photograph an entire session. Almost all photographers can take 1 amazing portrait during a session, which is the image you see on the website, but can they be consistent throughout the entire session? Keep in mind that the person you hire for your engagement portraits is likely the same person that you will hire for your wedding, so be sure to look at their wedding images as well. Many photographers include engagement portraits with their wedding collections.

Picking a Location

The location is perhaps the most important part of the engagement session. There are so many location options out there, it often gets overwhelming to come up with one on your own. Talk with your photographer. Many times, they can help guide you to the perfection location.

But what makes a perfect location? Is it a beach? A city? Forests? Fields?.. Start with things you and your fiance like to do. Are you beach people? If not, then doing an engagement session on the beach makes little sense. Do you enjoy the outdoors? If so, then maybe a state park would be the ideal location. Do you like the water? Maybe a location with a lake or on a boat would be perfect. Do you like to travel? Think about going to another city/state/country for your portraits. Choose a location that helps tell your story of who you are as a couple.

One suggestion!! Avoid the wedding location. Why? Because you will have plenty of portraits from there on your wedding day. Try to find a location that is different than the wedding venue as it will give you images that are diverse to display throughout your home.

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Choosing Outfits

This is where its important to talk with your photographer. Tell them the vision you have in and they can offer outfit suggestions. Are you doing a single outfit or multiple outfits? Multiple outfits will provide you with different looks throughout the session and is a great idea if you are using the images in something like a guest book. Also, be mindful of the location. Choose outfits that make sense for the location(s) you choose.

Think About What You Want to Order

Most couples have no clue what they want from their engagement session, but think about it before you determine your location and outfit. This will help give the photographer and idea on your thoughts. If you want save the date cards/magnets/etc, then there are certain images that are photographed for that… If you are wanting a guest book, there would be at least 10-20 portraits that the photographer would put in there. Those are 10-20 different poses.. in different locations.. with different lighting.. that will need to be photographed. This helps the photographer plan the session. If you want a large portrait for the wall, the photographer needs to shoot for that. Generally speaking, a close up portrait doesnt look good as a 30x40 on a wall, whereas, they look great as an 8x10. So the photographer would need to photograph for that 30x40. Thats not to say they wont do that anyway, but giving the photographer an idea on what you are wanting to get out of the session, will help them plan your session accordingly.

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In closing, the engagement session should be a priority and not something left on the back burner while you plan your wedding. Enjoy that time that you have together before your wedding because it will fly by. And who doesnt love to dress up a bit? Take advantage of that and go out to dinner afterwards :D

Denver Engagement Session | Michelle and Todd

A couple of months ago, I met Michelle and Todd in Denver and did an engagement session for them. Being a photographer from Florida, I get tired of the beach and other scenery that Florida offers. I have always wanted to do a session in the mountains and snow, so off to the mountains I went.

I may be the most unlucky photographer when it comes to travel sessions. Leading up to this session, the weather was in the 70s and 80s for weeks. The day that I arrive it drops to 30 and snows 5 inches. While the snow was welcomed, the cold that accompanied it, not so much. Its pretty difficult to smile and look happy when its pretty cold outside. I was perfectly warm under my jacket, but I cant say the same for Michelle and Todd when they took theirs off for the pictures. I applaud them for being troopers and pushing through when they probably didnt really want to be taking pictures... But we got some awesome images!! :)


Something that is unique about our photography services is that we have the ability to travel for sessions with our clients. This allows us to provide unique images to our clients that arent really possible when we stick to local locations. If you are planning a trip somewhere, let us know before you go and we can possibly join you for a session :)
 

Makayla and Anthony Engagement Session | Brooksville Wedding Photographer

We met Makayla and Anthony at a friend's farm in Brooksville, Florida for their engagement session. It was a beautiful day and an amazing location. Our style of wedding photography and approach to engagement portraits fit this location perfectly. As wedding photographers in Brooksville, we photography many weddings and engagement session on farms and similar locations. This place was unique and created an amazing backdrop for this engagement session.

Enjoy the pictures!! :)

Looking for a wedding photographer in Brooksville? Contact us for more information on how we can create amazing images for you.