Meet Melanie and Keith.
We started off the shoot at the Denton square at Recycled — a local music and book store that Keith and Melanie frequent.
As if looking at these two beautiful people looking at records wasn’t enough, Jonathan Taylor Thomas also made some appearances in their photos. JTT. Always trying to steal the show.
After scoping out the record section we headed over to their favorite section of the store (and mine too!) — the photography book section!
Mellllllllllanie. Girl. Those CURLS are simply beautiful. Almost as beautiful as the way Keith is looking at you in this picture.
What ever it is, Melanie’s got it.
For the second portion of the shoot Keith grabbed his banjo and his guitar and we headed out for the fields.
Keith’s been learning the banjo for several months now, but what he’s really known for is his guitar playing . . .
I just can’t get over this shot. I love it, okay?
Annnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnd . . . wait for it . . .
. . . BANNERS!
Melanie and her friend Anne made a couple of banners out of burlap for us to work into the shoot. Nicely done, ladies. They look lovely!
Their second banner reads “God is good.”
When I asked Melanie about why this phrase for their second banner she explained to me that her and Keith’s relationship is what it is because of God’s goodness and Jesus’ salvation.
Their relationship points them to God’s goodness.
“Jesus dying on the cross is what saved us from our former selves,” Melanie said. “That is why God is good!”
Melanie and Keith, y’all were so great to work with — I can’t stress it enough. I’m beyond excited to shoot your wedding next March!
Meet Jacklyn and Matt.
The minutes before I met them for the shoot they were buying pillows.
I know I left you hanging in mystery with the sneak peek last week, but now I’ll clue you in — Matt had finally convinced Jacklyn to include a pillow fight in their engagement shoot. And now that I’ve hooked you, the fight will be at the end of the post, so I guess you’ll just have to keep reading.
Somebody just TRY and tell me this girl ISN’T Mary-Kate Olsen. COME ON!
(Side note: I may or may not have, at one time in my life, owned every single Olsen movie ever made. I love me some Passport to Paris and Holiday in the Sun. Holla.)
Sigh. The almost kiss. Gets me every time.
Do you remember Hollye? Hollye and Jacklyn have been best friends since high school so Hollye lent us her fabulous vintage suitcase and some worn books to work into the shoot as well.
Definitely one of my favorites engagement shots that I’ve done. Possibly of all time. Look at those giddy-to-be-married faces.
A quick outfit change obviously produced some sass inside the two of them, but I certainly wasn’t about to object.
As cool as it would have been to find a random old window hanging on a nearby tree, the window is also Hollye’s. Seriously, Hollye is the wealth of all things nostalgic.
Jacklyn also expressed to me that she definitely wanted some wide-open field shots, so that was our next task.
Goooooooooooooooooooooooooooorgeous, Jacklyn. Just gorgeous.
They seriously just started having fun in front of my camera. I ate it up.
And now, right at dusk, segue into pillow fight.
Matt’s vision was to try something new and do something that set their engagement pictures apart — in the form of an all-out, no mercy pillow fight.
Words can.not express how ridiculously excited I get when a client tells me they have an idea like this. It’s like a little kid in a candy shop. And I looooove candy, so that’s saying something.
Bam.
There were feathers. everywhere. More than I could have ever imagined could possibly fit into two pillowcases.
It was incredible.
I love the mix of slightly blur-motion shots, like the one above, and the slightly sharper images like the one below. I like the different feelings associated with both of them.
Haha. Matt’s little boy face. Love it.
Who knew how super-romantic a pillow fight could turn out?
I get the feeling that Jacklyn and Matt even each other out. It’s not that one or the other is overwhelming on their own, but I guess it’s perhaps even in life Matt is the random pillow-fight to  Jacklyn’s field. Sure, it’s unexpected — but what they have and who they are in the end result is even better than any original expectation.
(The best news — this was only ONE of TWO engagement shoots that Matt and Jacklyn did. I’ll post their Sundance Square shoot soon!)
Meet Emily and Logan.
Emily and Logan leave the impression that they like life best when the other is in it. They’re the couple that kind of leaves the rest of the world feeling a bit outside of the Emily-Logan realm. The rest of the world is just a bit farther away from them than they are from each other.
This fact cannot deter people though, because we all know it’s right, that it’s the way it’s meant to be. We see it in their eyes. Their lives are better when the other is in it.
The fact of the matter is, Logan currently lives and works in the oil fields of West Virgina. Emily lives and student teaches in Texas. But when they’re together, they like their lives best.
Can I tell you a secret? When I met up with Emily to discuss wedding photography a few months before this shoot, she was all. business. But around Logan, this girl is all. smiles. I realize that obviously her future wedding photographer would not produce the same giddy-fying effect on her as her fiance, but seriously the shift from “without Logan in proximity” to “with Logan in proximity” was almost like meeting a different person.
This time, I was meeting “madly-in-love” Emily.
This shot above is easily one of my favorites from the shoot.
Gosh. I really can’t help but giggle to myself. Emily is incredibly petite. And Logan is . . . not AS petite.
Guys, I honestly cannot say with complete  certainty that they even remembered that I was there taking pictures of them sometimes. Like these times. All they knew was that there were not seven states between them anymore. They were together.
Why helloooooooooooooo, pretty light and pretty people.
Hey, Logan. Good job.
There is such adoration in both sets of those eyes.
Ya know. Just chillin’ on some train tracks.
I’m so excited for Emily and Logan’s wedding this summer. Then a trip halfway across the country can no longer stand a chance at separating these two. Then they can like their lives best all the time — as husband and wife.
Meet Robyn and Cole.
You know how some people just exude fabulousness? That’s Robyn.
Ok, how do I say this? My first impression of  Cole was not as the type of guy who can be openly lovey-dovey. He comes off as a guy who would be pained by such displays of affection.
Not. with. this. girl. I can just see his initial dispassionate demeanor melt around Robyn. That exterior layer hits the ground in a pool of love and dove.
Robyn informed me that this is how they sit on the couch and watch movies and therefore it must be replicated in their engagement pictures.
See? Fabulousness.
Loooooooooooooooooook at how he loooooks at herrrrrrrrrr. Doesn’t it just kill you? Never, ever forget how to look at her like that, Cole.
Let me talk straight with you — I am incredibly pleased with a lot of pictures that came out of this shoot. But this one above is one of my favorites.
Now, we’ve already talked about the way Cole looks at Robyn. But now watch how Robyn looks at Cole.
Go ahead and let it stop your heart for a bit.
Can I just tell you how this picture happened? I was positioning Robyn and Cole when Robyn looked back at me for a second and I immediately said, “Stop. right. there.” Forget the original pose — this was too good to pass up.
Throughout the shoot I kept noting to myself, “THAT shot was the ‘hero-shot.'” Usually a shoot will bring a definitive “hero-shot” — the shot that stands above all the rest. But with these two I would keep shooting and find myself saying, “No, I guess THIS one is the ‘hero-shot’ . . . or maybe it’s this one?” There were SO many take-away shots from this one. At the risk of sounding cheesy, it was like magic unfolding in front of my eyes over and over. Robyn and Cole — you are breathtaking together.
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