Congratulations, you've landed yourself a "bona-fide-whole-rest-of-your-life-partner"! After telling pacing around the parking lot for three hours as you make your way through calling anyone in your phone book who will pick-up as that partner of yours calls just their best friend and parents then grabs a bowl of pretzels to relax, you plop down next to the new fiance to breath. That's when you are told to get off your butt and start planning the wedding. Ok, what's first? The date. You'll need to know that to make any arrangements whatsoever. You pull out the calendar and with a big Sharpie you start blacking out all holidays, major birthday conflicts, school testing weekends, any time there is a football/baseball/basketball game, and anyone else's anniversary and ultimately decide to have the weeding when the flowers are prettiest and let everyone else deal with the conflicts. And beside, the venue only had one day open this century anyways. So, on to photography!

Now, it's been three weeks, because you've had to look at every photographer ever to post anything wedding related to pinterest. And your pinterest boards? They look like the community boards on eHarmony. Completely disorganized as you look for something better forgetting about what you've already thought was great. But, no matter you'll find the one when you are meant to. Realizing that your wedding, like so many things in life, will be governed by budget you start making calls and emails. Meekly, humbly, even timidly you ask, "what are your prices? packages? And what exactly is in the 'Platinum Diamond P-Diddy Package?'" It is here that you are meet with quite a few little doo-hickies that you hadn't ever considered or maybe never even wanted. One being; engagement portraits. 

"You must get them" your mom says breathlessly. "They offer them for a reason. And did you see Ashley's (your maid-of-honor), she looks just like a model." This last bit was punctuated with a swoon and a slow eye roll into closed eyelids. So, you call Ashley. "Well, our photographer is making a big splash on the national wedding scene and wanted to use us as his next 'light experiment'. It's nothing really, I just have a face for the camera.... at least that's what he said." Not to be outdone, you book your engagement session. 

Let me stop this snarky account and answer the big question of WHY? Why go through this? To please your mom? Ashley? The photographer? Absolutely not. As if those were ever good reasons to do anything. 

Let me put it this way; Engagement portraits are a way to lay hold of, to capture, to remember what it was like before you were a wife/groom. This is the largest transition of your life. Bigger than graduation, your first job, or your first house. The start of a new life. You can not understand the butterfly until you understand the caterpillar, the woman until you understand the girl, or the man until you understand the boy. Everything comes from something, and that is what the engagement session is designed to capture. To hire a photographer just to have someone spend a couple hours "photo-journaling" the wedding is to miss the whole story. A skilled, creative wedding artisan will frame your wedding into more than just an event. S/He'll tell the story from start to finish. 

Call us today to let us tell your story. 

Happy 2012 all,

I hope your year has already started off with good times.

In fairness though, every New Years Eve is destined to be great for us since December 31st is our Anniversary. As you can imagine, being surrounded as we are by weddings and families, Kristen and I get to dwell on the beauty of what marriage and family mean all the time. Constantly barraged by grooms watching their girlfriends become "wife", and wives becoming mommy, we stand in awe of the beauty of these metamorphosis. But, none of that would mean anything more than a job to me if I didn't have Kristen in my life. She is my translator taking what would be a incomprehensible change and making it sensical to me. I understand why we change when I look at her and my son. I understand why I want/need/have had to change. And it is so very worth it. I understand the value of my job because of them. That is largely what we do. We take before and after portraits but right in the moment.

I know this is like four days too late but I wanted to give you a little New Years cuteness.

There's nothing cuter than joseph gordon-levitt and his gal pal zooey dashanel singing about the new years

I like how his voice is just a smidgen higher than hers. I Joseph Gordon Love it! You're welcome for that one.

Tim