Jen & Mark – Paines Creek Beach Engagement Session

Despite living in New England full time for the last 14 years, I haven’t spent much time on the Cape. Jen & Mark wanted to have their engagement session near their beach home in the area, so my husband tagged along as my assistant and we made a day of it! Even though it was October, Paines Creek Beach was absolutely beautiful! We lucked out with a perfectly overcast day, albeit a little windy. Jen & Mark told us about some of their favorite places in the area, and even recommended a great spot for us to grab a bite to eat after we finished our session. Their wedding was this past September in Newport, Rhode Island, so stay tuned for that upcoming blog post!

I always enjoy engagement sessions with my couples. It really gives us a chance to get to know each other a little bit better before the wedding day. It also helps a couple get more comfortable with posing and being in front of the lens, so when the big day comes they already have an idea of what to expect. It also gives me a chance to gauge their comfort level and adapt to their needs. After all, your photographer is the vendor you’re spending the most time with on your wedding day, and it is imperative that you feel comfortable with that person. I always tell potential clients to go with their gut, and honestly, if I’m not the fit for you both in shooting style and personality, then I may not be the right fit for you. Do yourself the favor of meeting your potential photographer picks in person, or chat on the phone or via video chat if an in-person meeting isn’t an option. You’ll be grateful in the long run for putting in the time and effort up front 🙂

Boston North End Engagement Photos – Katie & Michael

As soon as I met with Katie & Michael, I knew their engagement photos were going to be a good time. They are both so sweet with fun, outgoing personalities! They both live in the North End in Boston, so that is where they chose to have their engagement photos. Of course, with all of the snow and blizzards, we had to reschedule a couple of times, but in the end the timing worked out. Our session fell on the same day as the Patriot’s Superbowl Parade, and since everyone was busy at that, it meant no people walking around in the back of our pictures! I even had the help of our office assistant, Rosie for the day. We started at Christopher Columbus Park, walked through the North End, stopping at some of their favorite spots, including where Michael proposed at Battery Wharf, and finally made our way over to Paul Revere Park by the Zakim Bridge. It was also right before Valentine’s day, so we had some fun taking pictures with (and of course eating) some candy hearts! We lucked out with fairly nice weather as far as January goes, too! I can’t wait for their October 2015 Wedding at Brookstone Park in Derry, New Hampshire!

Cider Hill Farm & Lynch Park Engagement – Alyssa & Brad

Cider Hill Farm & Lynch Park were the chosen locations for Alyssa & Brad’s engagement session! Alyssa & Brad were my first 617 Weddings clients who’s wedding I have actually already shot. I wasn’t expecting to book a wedding so quickly after joining the team, but I happened to be available when they needed a photographer right before their wedding date! We did their engagement session at the end of September, and the wedding was at the end of October. I’ll be posting the wedding later after I post some of the other weddings and engagements from this fall.

They chose to start their session at Lynch Park in Beverly, which is one of my favorite places in the world. I live about 5 minutes from the park, and have been going there since I was a little kid. It has a brick rose garden that’s full of beautiful flowers in the summer and early fall, a high wall over looking a beach, and lots more natural backdrops, making it a great spot with lots of diversity for photo shoots. It’s not uncommon to go there and see multiple sessions going on at once! There are weddings in the garden, and we almost got married there, but the one downside is that it’s open to the public, even during a wedding. It’s still a beautiful location if you don’t mind a lot of curious park-goers! I hope to shoot a wedding there someday soon.

Following some shots at the park, we headed up to Cider Hill Farm in Amesbury for some fall themed shots. Alyssa & Brad went on many dates there, so it was a special place for them. When possible, I love to incorporate things into your engagement and wedding photos that are special to you as a couple, and are part of your story. It makes your photos that much more fun and meaningful! After an outfit change, we headed into the apple orchards for the rest of our photo session. We got a lot of great shots, and even snacked on a couple apples! It was the end of the season so there wasn’t much left on the trees but we made it work. They also bought my husband (who tagged along as my assistant) and I a bag for picking so we did get to pick some apples after the shoot to take home, which was pretty awesome. Most of them became apple crisp 🙂

Nancy & Joe – Fort Revere and Nantasket Beach Engagement

Nancy and Joe found me as a referral through a mutual friend. Let me just say again, all of my friends are awesome for sending all these amazing and fun couples my way! I am shooting their June 2015 wedding at the Tirrell Room in Quincy. I can’t wait! They decided to take advantage of my engagement photo deal, which I will be posting more about soon, but basically I offer $100 off the Deluxe Engagement Session when you book your wedding with me. That’s a pretty awesome deal 🙂 Their locations of choice were Fort Revere and Nantasket Beach!

Anyway, back to the session. Nancy & Joe got engaged at Fort Revere in Hull, MA. It’s an abandoned military fort, now a park, that overlooks the water. It’s absolutely beautiful and the views are breathtaking. We all know I love a good landscape! I had never been down that way before, so I was excited when I checked out photos of the area. We started at the fort and took advantage of the different landscapes and backdrops it offered. They were even up for one of my creative ideas to use one of the graffiti covered halls inside the fort. It’s awesome when a couple is up for non-traditional ideas. It makes their engagement session stand out! They were also patient while I tried a an HDR shot to capture the colors of the sunset. Even more awesome! (Check out the last photo to see the HDR!)

After that we headed to Nantasket Beach, which I had also never been to. It was so pretty there. We lucked out and had beautiful weather too. The original shoot date was actually the day before, but the thunderstorms that arrived that day quickly squashed that. Luckily we had set the rain date for the day after anyway. After Nantasket Beach, we stopped by one other spot to catch the sunset, and it sure was a pretty one! We had such a fun day of shooting, and I loved exploring a new place I’d never been to 🙂 Now onto the photos. Enjoy!

Click on any photo to see the large version.