So You're EnGAYged, A Gay Wedding Blog

A big thanks to Kate McElwee Photography for sending these over. I actually spotted these in my RSS subscriber because I follow Kate’s blog but she emailed them to me before I could ask. Woot!

Chris: Kelly Alice and I met through a mutual friend, Erica. Erica, who lives in Philadelphia, actually went to college (Penn State) with KA and she also dates my very good friend Jo, who lives in New Orleans. One day Erica sends me an IM saying, “Do you like girls with tattoos?” to which I replied, “it depends on the tattoo…” Thankfully KA has good tattoos so she made the introductions and KA and I had an amazing 1st date.

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I’d never been a huge fan of engagement pictures…and then I started visiting this site. I mean, seriously, some of these photo sessions have been crazy awesome. So I’ve convinced Dana to do a session with an amateur-photographer friend of ours.

We were talking about possible locations, and I told him that South Park, a local park near our house, was the ideal place. It’s Dana’s favorite park, it’s 5 minutes from our house, and it’s the place where we decided to get married. We actually had considered having our reception at one of the buildings there, but the nicest place they had to rent (that we didn’t have to use their caterer) had gross bathrooms. I’m willing to be flexible on a lot of things, but bathrooms are not one of them.

Dana expressed some hesitation on getting engagement pictures and wondered why it was such a big deal to me. The only “official” photographs we have together are from our church directory. Sure, they’re fine, but it would be nice to have more than the one, which is somewhat cheesy.

I’d like to do them sooner rather than later, something hopefully photographer-friend Dan will agree to, so we can include them in our Save the Date cards. Another awesome friend of mine has offered to design the Save the Date cards, but although we are finally on the same schedule for the next two months, Dana and I haven’t managed to pick out a design that we like to give her as an example.

I’m really excited about this. The thought of having quasi-professional photographs of the two of us makes me happy. I think it’s just another one of those outside things that reinforces how much of a couple we are. No, I don’t need reinforcement…but it’s certainly nice to have. It’ll probably be very casual, and I think the pictures will be beautiful because the park is lovely this time of year, even though a lot of the trees have lost their leaves.

So…another wedding event to plan, but yet another one to look forward to. I can’t wait to share all the pictures. Wish us luck for an awesome session!

Beth and Jenny were awesome enough to write all about their engagement story after Amy from Teegan Photography submitted their engagement photographs. They went to Disneyland(!!) for their engagement session and I’m very jealous that they could include ferris wheels in their shots.
From Jenny:
Beth and I dated for approximately three years before our big day. We fell in love fast and instantly had an unmistakable connection. Within about a year of dating, we knew there was something special there and that we didn’t want to be with anyone else.
Disneyland has always had a special meaning to us. It has always been our “thing to do”, having season passes, naturally, living in Southern California. Beyond that, this is a place where we always connected. It became a special tradition. It was about special connection, walking while holding hands, enjoying the carefree atmosphere, screaming on rides together, etc. Specifically, there was one moment while sitting on a bench in California Adventure overlooking the water (fabulous view at night), where we spent a good amount of time reminiscing about our relationship and how special it was. From then on we spent the next year building a strong, solid foundation and were bonded more than ever before.
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If you remember we were pretty disappointed with our first engagement photos, so we had a redo with Kelly Prizel. I had a total freak out that morning about what to wear. I was so stressed after our previous experience that this time would be awkward or uncomfortable, but it so much fun. J and I drove out to a pick your own pumpkin farm in Maryland to meet Kelly. I had a great time, especially with the goats (I love goats). We are both so happy with the experience and how the pictures turned out. If any of you still need a photographer, I highly recommend Kelly. In fact, we liked her so much that she is officially our wedding photographer!

One of the pictures below is the front of our Save the Date postcard. Can you guess which?

Photo via Kelly Prizel Photography

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Labor Day weekend, we traveled up to NYC to have our engagement pictures taken at Coney Island.  First off, Coney Island is a hike and a half from Manhattan.  I will also say that the DC metro, for all of its faults, spoils me with air conditioning.  Once we got there, we were faced right away with hordes of people.  Somehow in my mind it was just going to be us at a major tourist spot, silly me.  We had never met our photographer before (he is J’s sister’s friend) and was recommended to us because he was in photography school.  We saw some of his homework photos and thought they were good.

Never having done an engagement session and working with an inexperienced wedding photographer, I would like to present my lessons learned:

1)  Come prepared with poses in mind and don’t be scared to be cuddly, otherwise you will not be touching your SO in any of the pictures.

2)  Even if you are feeling nervous, remember not to babble the whole time.  Your mouth will be opened in every picture (like me).

3)  Make sure to take lots of pictures.  J hates getting her picture taken so she wanted to cut the session as short as possible, but I wish we had shot at more than 3 rides/games.

Over all, I wish we could have a do over, where I smiled nicely, kept my shoulders back and touched J.  I have looked at so many gorgeous engagement photos in the past couple months, that my expectations had been inappropriately raised.  It is like looking at Martha Stewart Weddings and expecting my wedding to look like their staged ones.  This is my first instance of getting wrapped up in what things should look like as opposed to reality and it was a good wake up call.

Did anyone else have a discouraging first meeting or was it photographer love at first sight?