Tag Archives: Engagement

A-Rockin’ & A-Rollin’, Bushy Park Engagement Shoot: Theo & Lisa

January 30, 2012 in British Brides, Engagement | Written by

Hold the phones! This might be one of the cutest engagement shoots I’ve ever seen. Theo & Lisa are rockers at heart who love charity shop and vintage shopping, hip hop music and hanging out…and that’s exactly what they wanted for their engagement session – a simple shoot that shows the real them. I flippin’ love it.

I’ve also been informed that they’re trying to get Craig David to play at their August wedding (!) I’ll be sure to keep you guys in the loop on that one! Haha I love them already. I just know their wedding is going to be hella awesome.

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A Final Fantasy Engagement Shoot: Jennifer & Scott

January 12, 2012 in Engagement | Written by

This isn’t the usual kind of shoot I’d feature but sometimes we could all do with a bit of extra geek chic in our lives!

Jennifer & Scott met in 2005 at Anime Expo, one of the largest Japanese animation and video game conventions, held annually in Southern California. At these events a lot of people show up wearing costumes of their favourite anime characters and at this particular convention they both happened to come dressed as their characters from the video game series, Final Fantasy. Jennifer was dressed as Yuna from Final Fantasy X-2 and Scott was dressed as Seifer from Final Fantasy VIII. Their shared love of the series served as a great conversation-starter!

When the pair got engaged there was really only one theme they wanted to bring into their engagement shoot. They are also planning to have a Final Fantasy themed wedding – now that is something I can’t wait to see!

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An Indie Engagement: Karn & Poey

December 21, 2011 in Engagement | Written by

Originally from Bangkok, Thailand Karn & Poey both moved to Brisbane, Australia to study. They followed each other over and during one of their travels to Melbourne, Karn popped the question. This hip and quirky engagement shoot is such a perfect depiction of them as a couple. I love it!

“We met them at a local indie market where we had an instant photo booth stall and they decided they’d love to celebrate their engagement with photos” photographers Seth & Tenielle of Feather and Stone Photography told me. “All the styling was completely their own, their own personal style shone through completely. They are two of the sweetest people we’ve worked with!! We LOVE when couples individual styles really come through the photos.”

The session was shot 100% on film as opposed to a digital. “We moved back to shooting film 6 months ago and this was one of our 1st all film sessions”, Tenielle continued. “We’re loving it, there’s such an organic, raw softness feel to film. We’ve stuck to it since.”

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A Colourful Indian Engagement Ceremony: Yashwin & Avani

December 20, 2011 in Engagement | Written by

I’ve something a little different for you this afternoon in Yashwin & Avani’s engagement ceremony. In India, where the couple live, having an engagement ceremony is just as big a deal as the actual wedding. As photographer Kismet Nakai explained,

“What usually happens in India is that when the couple gets engaged, even if there is a sweet proposal in private, there is always a ‘formal’ engagement to announce it to the world. It’s almost like a mini wedding. In this case they had their engagement party on the same day as Avanis parents 25th anniversary so it was a combined party with like 400 people (imagine how big the wedding is going to be!!!).”

“The families said a few words about the bride and groom and then they exchanged rings, cut a cake and partied! Not very different from a wedding really! There was nothing very religious about it but our traditions such as the ring exchanging are very very important. People do combine all this into the wedding time (usually an Indian wedding will be a week long celebration, with all the different events, including the engagement ceremony, a few days apart, but these guys did it before – I guess just to celebrate!) Yashwin & Avani did have a religious ceremony for the engagement as well, at the temple but I wasn’t there for that. They also had a mehendi/henna party too! It might seem crazy that so much happens just for an engagement but India loves weddings!”

Avani wore a stunning patchwork dress by Masaba, a designer from Mumbai. “As I paraded around the studio, in my funny patchwork garb, Yashwin said I looked like a magician,” the bride laughed.  ”See the love in that statement?! In fact ‘love’ has been our main inspiration throughout our wedding planning. Celebrating our engagement it on my parents 25th anniversary made it so much more special. We celebrated by being who we are – colourful, artistic and madly in love!”

“The day was a happy and shiny morning. We desperately wanted candid photos and pictures with our darling cat babies. So our photographer Kismet came over to my place first and we got some beautiful, deliciously random pictures. It was all the details, the tiniest ones didn’t escape her. At the ceremony, things were mental, a complete blur. We wanted a really low key affair which got blown out of proportion cause our parents are super social. However we made it work in the end. All you need is a close bunch of friends from all over and mad music. We were rolling in laughter and vodka and love. It was a glorious day.”

If this was just the engagement ceremony I can’t wait to see the wedding can you?!

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A Food Fight Engagement Shoot: Kim & Phil

November 30, 2011 in British Brides, Engagement | Written by

Kim & Phil were the lucky couple who won an engagement and video shoot with Assassynation, Sassy n Frank and  Elbie Van Eeden. Their idea for a crazy shoot was a food fight as Kim explained in her entry,

“We got engaged on 1st April 2011, yes you heard right, April Fool’s Day, and with this in mind we would like to continue our personalities and character traits in an engagement shoot. The theme I see is a food fight, with bright and colourful food such as cupcakes, hotdogs, condiments (almost American food style) between myself and my fiancé.”

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“We could be dressed in black so the bright colours would show up. I’d like some bright colour extensions in my hair (it’s brown at the moment) and bright make up to create a bold look.”

I’m thrilled to share the results with you today. Aren’t these two totally brave!? This is one messy shoot and I love it!

The video by Sassy n Frank which the couple will use as their Save The Date for their Vegas wedding is just genius…

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Why I Don’t Feature Many Engagement Shoots…

November 9, 2011 in Engagement, Personal Rambles | Written by

Photography Credit: Blue Lily Photography (Full shoot coming up soon!)

I’m often asked by wedding photographers what I look for in engagement shoots. You see, unlike many wedding blogs I actually feature very few pre-wedding shoots – in fact since January this year I’ve actually only featured 30 (out of approximately 780 blog posts in total!)

So why do I feature so few? Now don’t get me wrong, I LOVE engagement shoots and I am a strong advocate for every single one of you having one before your wedding. They not only help you to get to know your wedding photographer before the wedding, but they give you a practice run for what it will be like to be photographed on your big day. For most of you, your wedding will be the first time you’ve been professionally photographed so you’re likely to be nervous. A pre-wedding shoot will help you to a) see that it’s actually not that scary and b) relax you about the whole thing before the wedding.

Now, don’t kill me, but the thing with engagement shoots is that often they are a lot more interesting to the actual couple and their close friends and family than to anyone else – i.e having a simple shoot of you and your beau is amazing for you guys and will give you some fabulous photos to put on your wall (or display at your wedding – I love this idea!) However to people that don’t know you, or anything about your relationship, seeing yet another anonymous couple frolicking in a field or enjoying a vintage picnic is, forgive me, a little dull.

…OK maybe ‘dull’ is the wrong word actually…overdone would be better. On Rock n Roll Bride I want to inspire my readers with new ideas, and let’s be honest, we’ve all seen these kinds of photo shoots before haven’t we?

My job as a wedding blogger is to share inspirational and aspirational wedding related images and not all engagement shoots fit that criteria. (Again, I am going to repeat myself on this one because the last thing I want to do is offend anyone that’s having a vintage picnic engagement shoot…seriously, at the end of the day, who cares what I think!?)

This is actually quite a hard post to write without making you think ‘Oh Kat’s an engagement shoot snob and if it’s not good enough for her shes not going post it.. that must mean that my engagement shoot is crap. My God she’s such a bitch…’ So I’m just going to reiterate one more time that this is the not the case at all and the only reason I’m actually putting this down on paper is because I’ve been asked the same question by wedding photographers so many times.

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