Our Engagement Pictures (Pic Heavy)!

I have been looking forward to writing this post for SO long!  As you have probably heard, Adam and I don't have many pictures together.  Well, many good pictures together.  Thus, going in to our engagement session two weeks ago, I was a little worried.

We started out by having a late lunch at one of our favorite places, the Hibachi Hut.

Source

Now, the Hibachi Hut not only has great food, but they have these amazing Long Island Iced Teas.  As encouraged by our awesome photographer, Grant Watkins, we decided to loosen up a bit with one each over lunch.  This may have not been the best idea for me, as evidenced by some pictures of my cheese-grin, but it worked wonders for Adam.  After our dinner and drink-age, we were ready to commence the picture-taking.

The afternoon flew by.  Grant was great with getting us comfortable and relaxed. We started out around campus, made our way to the old KSU stadium and then headed for a few photographic shots in our bar "district," Aggieville.  We ended our day out at Scenic Overlook at sunset.  It's this little point of interest out on the side of the highway that shows off the Flinthills and the Konza Prairie, both very Kansas features. We like to forget that we are native Kansans most of the time (Dorothy, please), but it was a nice addition to our Urban/Rural theme(?).

Grant told us that we would get our pictures back in a week.  In that week's time, I started to worry more and more.  I figured we are going to be the couple that can never post their pictures on their walls, that we'll have a home with no children and bare walls, and my plan for using our pictures for Save-The-Dates and our guestbook would have to get thrown out.  Well, I should have given Grant (and us) a little more credit because last week we got our pictures back and I am quite pleased.    So, let's see some of my favorites (all photos below by Grant Watkins Photography):

   

   

All in all, we have about 30 pictures that I am happy with and will use for my upcoming projects.  There are about 20 more that Adam and I agreed on that we will not use, mostly because of one of us isn't fully camera ready.  Based on our picture-taking experience, and after viewing our pictures, I do have a couple of regrets/future advice for couples:

1. Don't chew gum - Adam and I are gum addicts.  Neither of us really thought about it, but there are some pictures of us laughing where you can see our gum (not acceptable for Save-The-Dates!)
2. Wear clothes that you are super comfortable with - The sunset pictures happen to be my/Adam's least favorite because we aren't happy with the clothes that we picked out.  I didn't have good posture in a lot of those photos, and the shirt that I chose makes that very obvious.  Adam didn't like his shirt either, and there are several where he has really puffy arms or the back is really loose.  You could also tell we weren't as comfortable as it translated into the pictures quite clearly.
3. Have fun, but be serious too - I feel like we were a little too goofy.  I mean, that's how we typically are with each other, but with the extra alcohol and being nervous, we have lots of silly pictures.  We did have a few good love-y ones, but I think there is an absence of romantic pictures and no kissing pictures!  We did try a couple of kissing pictures, but apparently we are ugly kissers and need to practice before the wedding!  There is one that made it onto the CD, but our hands are in our pockets and we are leaning awkwardly toward each other...weirdos.

All in all, I am so glad that we were able to take engagement pictures together before the wedding.  It really gave us an idea about what to expect when the wedding comes, and to have a sense of what to do/not do in our wedding pictures.  I have such a round face that I am going to have to pay more attention to how I pose to avoid the double chin and my posture is another thing that I need to work on.  As for Adam, I am really happy with his pictures.  It makes me wonder if he has been tricking me all along to think that he couldn't take pictures. I'd rather like to think that he has secretly been practicing in the mirror the last couple of months! 

So yes, engagement pictures are checked off the list now.  It's starting to feel real that we are getting married in 8 months...yikes!

How did your engagement session go?  Better/worse than expected?  Any things that surprised you?