Our Engagement Photo Shoot
You must have already noticed by now that we’ve updated the photos on the website. The photos that you see were from our Engagement Photo Shoot that took place on July 22nd between 6:30 and 8 pm in Oak Glen, Yucaipa area.
So for this journal entry, I’d like to share with you exactly what went into the planning, preparations, and actual shoot… from start to finish.
Step 1: Pick A Date for the Photo Shoot
I started the planning process by first emailing Matt (our official wedding photographer) on March 28th to ask about his availability for the month of June or July. Since many popular vendors book up well in advance, and Matt is one of them, I wanted to make sure Bernie and I can get on his calendar at least a couple of months in advance.
The reason I wanted to do our photo shoot in June or July was that our Save-The-Date cards should be mailed out by September. So having the photo shoot done no later than July should give us enough time for any photo processing or editing that Matt will need to do on his end. And then I can start working with our stationery provider to get the Save-The-Date cards custom-designed, printed, and shipped.
Me: Hi Matt! What's your schedule like in June or July? Bernie and I are thinking of booking our Engagement Photo Shoot with you in either late June or early July of this year. Would that be a good time to schedule the photo shoot? Would that work for you? Normally, how long should we wait before we get the photos after the shoot?
Matt: Hi Myla! June or July are fine for the shoot. Normally I suggest weekday evenings in order to prevent the crowds that usually frequent common places for sessions on the weekends. You receive the photos the same night or next day after the shoot. From there you get to pick your favorites for retouching.
As you can see from Matt’s response, he suggested shooting on a weekday evening. I had no problem with picking a weekday but… evening? There was a moment’s hesitation on my part:
Me: Hmm... Not sure if we like the idea of shooting in the evening... isn’t it going to be too dark in photos? We prefer our photos to not be so dark. Is it possible to shoot in daylight?
Matt: By evening I mean right before sunset, which right now is between about 5:45pm-7pm. That gives you the best mix of golden and soft lighting without being overpowering like the mid-day sun. Most of the shoots that I do are during that time, and no your photos will not be dark.
Well… when you hire a professional to do a specific job for your wedding, you need to trust that this person knows what he’s doing… and let him do his job, right?
So Bernie and I said, “Okay” to Matt’s recommendation and set our Engagement Photo Shoot date to July 1st at 5:30 pm. Towards the end of June, we decided to move the photo shoot date to July 22nd at 6:30 pm.
Step 2: Pick A Location for the Photo Shoot
When it came to picking a location, Bernie and I were clear on what we were looking for—we wanted to be surrounded by nature… wherever there are lots of trees, flowers, grass, open sky, water, etc. We knew we didn’t want the Glitz and Glamor type of photo shoot, at least not for this one because our engagement photos would go on our website and the Save-The-Date cards so we wanted to maintain some cohesiveness between these photos and the wedding itself — keeping in mind that our wedding theme is Garden Formal.
The engagement photos didn’t necessarily have to be as formal as the wedding itself. Generally speaking, you can have a completely different theme for an engagement photo shoot. You can have a formal, hotel-ballroom-type of wedding and have a t-shirt-and-jeans-type of engagement photo shoot. It’s all a matter of preference. It’s your wedding… you can have it your way!
Bernie and I wanted to show our personalities more in our engagement photos—we wanted it to be more laidback and playful—but still have that “garden/nature” feel to be consistent with the wedding theme.
Initially, we wanted to have the photoshoot at the UCR Botanic Gardens but their hours are only from 9am to 2pm on Thursdays. The next options were English Springs Park and Downtown Redlands.
But we eventually decided on Oak Glen, and the reasons are quite evident in the photos and video below:
Video courtesy of oakglen.net
Step 3: Get Ready for the Photo Shoot
I started shopping for an outfit a month prior to the photo shoot but online delivery was estimated to take about 3-4 weeks. Since shipping delays are a very real possibility nowadays, I didn’t want to take that risk. Bernie and I eventually decided to get our outfits from the mall.
We considered wearing a matching white-top-with-denim-pants outfit. But I’ve also always wanted to don a babydoll dress with cowboy boots. So we eventually decided to go for that look.
And then Leanna Walker, our Official Wedding Hair and Makeup Artist, styled my hair and helped me get photoshoot-ready.
We met up with Matt at the parking lot of Apple Annie’s Restaurant & Bakery at 6:30 pm. And from there, we pretty much just followed him around in our car as he searched for suitable spots. Whenever he found a good spot, we parked our vehicles on the side of the road, got out of our vehicles, and just started posing for our photos on Matt’s prompting.
The shoot lasted for about an hour and a half… until it got too dark to shoot any more photos.
As for my Bernie—he was such a trooper! I’m super proud of him. From choosing his own outfit to agreeing to do a piggyback photo with me (yes, we had that too, unfortunately… and no, you may not see that photo because it was just awful—it was painful when we did it, and it’s still painful to look at 😂). Bernie’s the real reason the entire process was fun and enjoyable!
So other than those you already see here on the website, here are more photos from the shoot.
