Christmas and warm gloves may seem like a distant memory but engagement sessions are taking up every waking second I have right now. Planning/shooting/editing. I love it. And this fun-filled shoot with Jill and Paul is fun-filled for one big, fat reason: we centered the engagement shoot around an activity. Many couples think of engagement sessions and can’t stand the thought of another. stuffy. picture. But I want to BAN stuffy. Kick it out to the curb.

Take away from this shoot: If you center your engagement shoot around an activity rather than a location, you will have something to do. And when you have something to do- you’re not thinking about the camera. You’re laughing about your partner trying to climb a pile of logs. Or walking the dog towards the next field of trees with a saw- only for me to fall in love with that visual and take a picture. Or cuddling closer to keep warm. Or trying to find the dog in the mess of trees. Or cutting down your own Christmas tree and trying to haul it- only to have a awesome truck drive by to help us haul plus *bonus* get a great kissing shot.

Hate stuffy? Then stop it in it’s tracks. Plan your engagement shoot around an activity.

You could just see the hours of handwork put into Tricia and Courtney’s ceremony covering. Their fathers had spent, I’m sure, many days perfecting the corn husk, berry, and birch pole covering. Under that very ceremony covering, they exchanged rings and got legally married! A big ol’ CT marriage certificate was theirs to take back to CA with them. But they gave back to CT as well. A brand new baby tree was planted, watered and covered to bring new life to the backyard where Courtney grew up. I had heard of tree plantings for earth day and such, but it was nice to see two brides sprinkling dirt and water- just excited to see what their tree would look like in less than a year. Or 10. Or 90.