getting to know you

Once in a while, a bride asks me or Amy whether she really ought to have an engagement session. We say, with much conviction, "Yes!"

David and I have ONE picture of ourselves during our dating years. That picture is precious to me: it represents an entire "era" in our relationship and evokes a wagonload of wonderful memories. And heck, we look so darn young!

Soon after my brother-in-law Geoffrey made this picture, he offered us this advice (newly engaged, we were deciding when to schedule our wedding): "Being engaged is a once-in-a-life, special time in your relationship. Why rush it?!"

Amy and I offer similar advice to couples: "Being engaged is a once-in-a-life, special time in your relationship. Why not document it?!"

As documentary wedding photographers, we also have our own motives. Getting to know a couple better through photographing them BEFORE the wedding day, helps them feel all the more comfortable with a camera ON the wedding day. And the more we know a couple, the better we are able to capture the moments and moods that make each couple unique.

So three cheers for engagement sessions! And three cheers for these couples who were a delight to photograph and whose weddings are in the planning stages:

Megan & Ben ~ about to be married June 1 at Stephens' Firestone Baars Chapel:Adrienne & Ryan ~ getting married on June 23 in Marshall, Missouri (with a reception at the Saline County Fairgrounds, which sounds just GRAND!):Kim & Matt, who just bought a house (CONGRATS!) and are marrying on September 15 at Our Lady of Lourdes:Stephanie & Nick ~ marrying November 3 in Hermann (and by the way, Nick planted each of these grapevines himself, a labor of love!)
~kim