I recently submitted 12 engagement shots into a Junebug Weddings contest and thought I would share my selections here. Fun memories with fun couples! (if the shots are too big, click on one of them to resize in popup slideshow)

Anybody can aim a camera at two people and tell them to smile but it’s incredibly more rewarding to seek out their personalities and reveal their bond. I do this by learning what is interesting to them and discovering their story.

Granted, it takes more time but it’s worth it and, in the case of Steve and Kelly, it took me all the way back to where Steve proposed to Kelly in the snow with rose petals at her family’s cabin near Stevens Pass. We first stopped by the cabin and made use of their large field below the cabin and the river passing around it. We also brought their dogs which are very important to them. On our way back down to home, we found a side road with snow to recreate the proposal.

Another fun Greenlake portrait session, but this time we caught the very last bits of Fall color along with blue skies. We brought along some bubbles and sidewalk chalk for some make-shift hopscotch in the bike lane. No, the bikers were not too happy with that.

So much color! The flowers were blooming and I asked Karen and Alex what they thought about exploring the RoozenGaarde fields. To mix it up, we brought a picnic basket. The following week, we encorporated their neighboorhood of Ballard into the portraits starting with some guitar playing near the steps of the old Guitar Emporium then ending at their favorite cafe on 24th, Besalu. I agree, the ginger biscuits and lattes were amazing.

They are now married! See their wedding blog post here!

I had no question that these guys were going to have a great day based on our meetings and fun tulip fields engagement session a few months prior. On the morning of the wedding, I found Karen in her Woodmark Hotel room getting her hair and makeup done. The water and sky outside were a deep blue but quickly lit up in time for our first look with Alex at the hotel’s main staircase.

After a bit of photography around the Hotel (Pacific Northwest rain can’t stop us!) we were off to their Church in Kirkland then back to the Woodmark for their reception in the Marina Room. It was touching to see that Alex prepared a special song for Karen during the reception and hilarious that he followed it all up with a Gangnum Style dance with his groomsmen. It was also a ton of fun doing outside shots in the sprinkling rain on the waterfront.