August 24, 2020
On this day last year I documented Jill’s best friends wedding on Peaks Island. Yesterday, I documented Jill and Andrew’s engagement session at Kettle Cove in Cape Elizabeth, Maine. I love the network and connection that my business has given me. It’s such a beautiful thing to watch the milestones in a friend group; from engagements, to weddings, and family Sessions.
Yesterday was a beautiful day for an engagement session. Before the session, I sent Jill and Andrew a few questions, so take a look at their answers and images below!
1. What is your favorite thing to do together?
We are lucky to have many of the same interests. We love to ski, bike, and go boating.
2. What are your hobbies/what do you do on your free time?
We are both dedicated to fitness. Andrew spends many mornings at the CrossFit gym in Yarmouth. I can usually be found running or biking. I love to cook and we both love learning about wine and whiskey. We have lots of friends and family close by, who we spend most of our free time with.
3. What are you looking to get out of this session other than photos?
To get to know you and your photography style to make sure we are comfortable in the spotlight on our wedding day. We would also like to use one of the photographs for our Save the Date invitations.
4. When you look back on these photos in 20 years what do you want to feel?
Extremely happy
August 17, 2020
I’m a sucker for shooting at the beach and I could spend every day shooting sessions there. Johnna and Max traveled an hour and a half from the Boston area to shoot their engagement session in Cape Elizabeth, Maine. Before every engagement session I ask my clients a few questions in order to get to know them better and to learn more about what they want out of their sessions. Johnna and Max responses are below:
1. What is your favorite thing to do together? We love to travel together whenever we can. Whether it is out of country, a road trip, or exploring all over New England for beaches, lakes, or ski trips. Whenever we can get away, we do! If not, we love to just have game nights or go out with our friends and family.
2. What are your hobbies/what do you do on your free time? On our free time together we love to just go on hikes and walks with our puppy. We also always love to relax to binge a show or watch a new movie.
3. What are you looking to get out of this session other than photos? To have fun and as a way to celebrate our engagement and getting more excited for our wedding. This will make us(more max) get more comfortable in front of the camera to prepare for our wedding day!
4. When you look back on these photos in 20 years what do you want to feel? Happiness, to see how much fun we have together as well as well as our connection with each other.
August 11, 2020
I’ve had a lot of questions lightly about what to wear during your engagement session. Everyone’s style is different, but I put together some of my favorite looks whether you’re doing your session in the streets of Boston or at the beach in Maine. If you and your fiancé are similar to me and my fiancé, then you probably don’t have many high quality photos together. This one hour session is aimed to capture your personality and relationship. If you are ocean lovers, let’s go to the beach or enjoy an evening sail together. If you love the city, let’s take a stroll to your favorite coffee shops and parks.
I know many of you have already seen my engagement session brochure, but I wanted to give you some visuals – color palettes, links to beautiful dresses, as well as links to some of the styles your fiancé can wear.
The First Style
This first style is one of my favorites. It’s clean, classic, and elegant, which is what I strive for in my photography. I love how timeless this look is and it fits in well with coastal New England engagement sessions. Take this look to downtown Boston, Portland, Maine or to the coast.
LADIES OUTFIT
Dress
Shoes
Earrings
MENS OUTFIT
Blaser
Pants
Shirt
Shoes
NORDSTROM
Dress 1 Dress 2 Dress 3
Rent The Runway
Dress 4 Dress 5 Dress 6
The Second Style
I like to call this style casual dressy, it’s easy yet beautiful. You can add statement earrings and heels to the flowy white dress to make it more sophisticated. Your fiancé can keep it low key and classic in khakis, a white t-shirt, button down, and maybe a pair of vans. This a perfect look for the beach, or a night out downtown.
LADIES OUTFIT
Earrings
Dress
Shoes
MENS OUTFIT
Entire outfit
Shoes
Below are some of my favorite dresses for the above look. The ones on the left are J.Crew and the ones on the right are various brands you can rent from Rent The Runway. Rent The Runway is a great option for your engagement session and it’s an amazing option if you’re not wearing the outfit more than a couple times. It an easy process and I highly recommend it. I provided the links to the dresses below.
J Crew
Dress 1 Dress 2 Dress 3
Rent The Runway
Dress 4 Dress 5 Dress 6
The Third Style
I like to call this the nautical fall look. It’s coastal, clean and the contrast between colors makes it fun. I love the brown shoes paired with the other neutral tones which definitely gives it a more fall, earthy look. If it’s in the midst of summer still, swap out those brown shoes for a pair of beige boat shoes for your fiancé and a pair of beige heeled sandals or flats for yourself. I provided more dresses below with links.
LADIES OUTFIT
Dress
Shoes
MENS OUTFIT
Sweater
Pants
Shoes
RENT THE RUNWAY
Dress 1 Dress 2 Dress 3
MADEWELL
Dress 4 Dress 5
MICHAEL KORS
Dress 6
I like to tell my couples to bring two outfit changes to every session. It allows you to get one casual look and one dressy look. It’s rare that we get professional photos done, so I highly suggest taking advantage of it!
I hope you found this post helpful in planning your engagement session and I can’t wait to capture beautiful photos of you and your fiancé!
July 21, 2020
Alexander proposed to Alexis onboard a private sailboat charter with Silver Linging Sailing in Oqunquit, Maine. Alexis is from Sydney, Australia and Alexander is from Buffalo, NY. They met on a Contiki trip in Europe 4 years ago and soon after the trip was over they started dating. They did the whole long distance thing for 3 years, traveling to see each other every 3 months. Last year Alexis decided it was time to move to the USA so she moved in with Alexander in Boston. This was such a magical evening out on the water and I’m so happy for these two. Cheers to these two as they start their next chapter!
April 10, 2020
Getting you ready for the 2020 wedding season and keeping your creativity going during Quarantine.
Every year I spend my Spring prepping for the upcoming wedding season. I start by getting my gear serviced, updating my equipment, buying film, and one of my favorite things, buying new styling tools for flat-lay design. Today I wanted to share what I use for flat lays and where you can purchase all the pretty things! This is also a great resource if you’re bored in Quarantine and want to get creative at home.
Styling Dishes:
I love styling dishes! These are amazing to hold rings, earrings, and fine jewelry. They add dimension to your flat lays and are easily transportable.
Marbella Dish. These are some of my favorite because they look really pretty and they’re plastic. I usually don’t use plastic materials, and in most of my practices I try to be as sustainable as possible, but it’s extremely hard to transport glass or ceramic dishes when you’re running around all day at a wedding. These dishes come in many colors and sizes.
SOCOSY Classic Matte Ceramic Sauce Dishes. I bought these dishes on amazon and they are extremely affordable and really cute. However, they are ceramic so I like to use these when I know I won’t be running around from one location to the next.
Styling Mats:
(Featured above) These styling mats are amazing. In my opinion they’re worth the price tag of $180. Why? Because they’re extremely portable and they’re reversible. When I’m shooting a wedding I have so many things to think about that I will pay for the convenience of portable styling materials. The last thing I want to do is lug around things that will break or are hard to carry.
These mats are rollable and there are a variety of colors. Each one has a marbled texture to it and they’re hand painted canvas. Prices start at $85.
Chasing stone is a great place to source mats with a pop of color. These are premium canvases with frayed edges. These matts also have a marbled look and come with a price tag of $145.00
I just stumbled across this account on Amazon and these mats are double sided and rollable. They also come in a transparent container for storage. The best part of these mats is that they’re $115!
These mats are not rollable, but their price tag is $110, which is much less than the rollable mats. Available fabrics include Cotlin, Oatmeal, Champagne, Silver, Fog, Heathered Blue, Seafoam, Blue Gold, Pewter, Deep Blue, Blue Silver, Blush, Cinnamon, Taupe, Gray Buckram, Linen, & Black.
Favorite Etsy Shops for Flat Lay Styling:
This Etsy shop has everything beautiful from velvet and silk ribbon, to styling bundles and styling dishes. This shop is also based in Texas which makes shipping times fast!
This store has a lot of options from fabrics, table runners, swatches, napkins, and a variety of ribbon.
LustreTheory offers flat lay blocks for adding dimension to your flat lays. Made from clear acrylic, these styling blocks add height and dimension to product photography or wedding stationery flat lay designs.
Stamps and paper goods:
This company specializes in vintage postage. They have an enormous library of vintage postage and everything pretty.
Scissors, Wedding Trays and Wicker Fans on Amazon:
Scissors – Amazon has a variety of affordable vintage looking scissors
Metal Tray with Distressed Finish
Wicker Fans (White) on The Knot
November 11, 2019
This was one of my favorite engagement sessions of the season! Johna and Brendon are getting married at Bear Mountain Inn next summer and I can’t wait to be part of their big day. Choosing a couple different outfits for your engagement session is a wonderful way to mix things up and capture different looks. Johna wore a beautiful blush dress, which was absolutely whimsical. In true Maine fashion, they changed into a casual plaid outfit for their second look. Also, as most of you know, I’m a HUGE dog lover and I think incorporating your furry friends into your engagement session is such a wonderful way to get great family photos.
July 25, 2019
When I asked Megan and Howie what they wanted to do for their engagement session Megan said that they play a lot of beach volleyball in California so they’d like to go to the beach. My favorite place is also the beach so I was even more excited about this session. To back track, Megan and Howie live in California, but they’re getting married in Maine next summer.
To some of you this might sound cheesy but I ask my couples what their favorite feature of one another is. Megan said, “his smile, which sounds so cliche, but when you see it, you’ll know what I mean. He truly smiles with his whole face, his mouth, his eyes, even his ears. It makes me feel like everything is going to be okay.” When I asked Howie what his favorite feature of Megan was he said, “ her eyes, “they’re big and beautiful”. These two were so much fun to work with and I loved every frame we captured. I can’t wait to document their wedding next year at Brick South.
June 26, 2019
Sarah and Connor live in Boston, but Sarah is originally from Michigan and Connor is from Los Angeles. They met in college in North Carolina and have been head over heels ever since. They decided to come up to Portland, Maine to enjoy the restaurants, waterfront, and scenic views. On Sunday we explored Spring Point Lighthouse in South Portland and Kettle Cove in Cape Elizabeth. I can’t wait for these two to get married in Charlotte, North Carolina next April.
