Morning lovely people 🙂 Hoping this finds you well 😉 It's half term here where I am today and I'm heading off our shortly for a 'Horrid Henries Halloween Party' with my 2 children at the amazing Seven Stories – wish me luck! I have a feeling I'm gonna need it! ;)
This lovely engagement shoot celebrates the upcoming marriage between couple Alison and Michael, and it is just fabulous. Alison contacted me a couple of weeks ago to ask if I'd like to share these engagement shoot photographs that were taken on the family farm. I'll hand over to the pretty lady herself to explain her story…
"Michael and I got engaged on Christmas day 2010 in my dining room away from the hubub and chaos of Christmas dinner preparations. I looked like an absolute rotter in my fleece pyjamas, uggs and dressing gown when he got down on one knee. Even though we had been going out for 8 years and had talked about getting married quite a bit it was a complete shock! I hid my face under my dressing gown and turned away from him and was a shaking, blubbering mess!"
Love My Dress Wedding Blog – Photography Copyright (c) 2011, Blackbox Photography
"When I calmed down we were able to go and tell all my family (Mum, Dad, Nana, Grampa, Auntie, Uncles, 2 cousins, 3 sisters and my brother who were all staying in our farm house). It was the most magical Christmas ever and the champagne flowed!!"
"We decided to book our wedding for summer 2012 because we had 3 friends weddings to attend in Summer 2011 and I wanted to have plenty of time to plan and prepare. I'm a teacher and have been absolutely loving the planning process! Wedding fairs and bridal shop fittings quickly commenced during my half terms and Easter hols. My mum found Love My Dress and I have been hooked ever since, reading everyday for inspiration…"
"My Nana Moore was always an ultra stylish lady and I know she would love to have been at my wedding. She died several years ago but I wanted to remember her in some way on my big day. When she died she left me a grafton tea set dating back to the 1920s. I was inspired by floral arrangements in teacups from a wedding you featured on your blog and my desire for a vintage themed wedding sort of grew from there. The vintage theme also influenced our engagement shoot, particularly after I found an old 1950's bike, some tilly lamps and a wooden chest in our farm outhouse which I spent the summer revamping…"
"We booked Blackbox Photography at Christmas only a few days after we got engaged. We visited a few other photographers before booking them but after visiting Louie and Louise we came away buzzing and knew that their candid style was perfect for us. Thrown into the package was an engagement shoot which I was very excited about.
I wanted the to take place during the summer so that we could use the pictures for our save the dates. Our farm always looks best in the summer with round bales galore and wheat and barley fields ready for harvest. Having grown up on the farm and since Michael proposed at my house i couldn't think of a better setting for the shoot. We finished off the shoot round at Michael's house for a few snaps down by the lake and in the hammock on his front lawn…"
"Before the shoot I did several walks and mock engagement shoots with my sisters which was hilarious but was so worth doing because we were able to direct Louise and Louie to all the best spots without wasting precious time. Along with my mum I spent the morning collecting wildflowers, wheat and sweet pea to make into wee bouquets and displays for our picnic and for the basket on the front of the bike. I feel so lucky to have all of those gorgeous things growing on my doorstep and definitely want to incorporate wildflowers into our wedding next summer.
With so much flying about and preparation that morning I got myself into a bit of a tizzy just before the photographers arrived and had a couple of gins to settle my nerves. It worked a treat. Louise and Louie made us feel so relaxed and chatted to us throughout the shoot. They were also more than happy to get their hands dirty and be driven around in the trailer of a gator. Louie amazed us with his monkey climbing techniques free climbing up the side of the hay shed to get a picture of us sitting on a round bale trailer through a wee hole in the corrugated iron! He also had to give us a push to get started riding across the wheat field on the bike! Thank God it survived intact…"
"It was such a fun day, definitely the highlight of my summer and i just want to thank our photographers for making us feel so relaxed and happy on the day. We adore the pictures and cannot wait for the wedding. Thank you so much Annabel for providing such wonderful daily inspiration and for offering me some escapism from the daily grind of teaching a reception class!"
So much fun and so darn gorgeous!
Take a moment to visit the Blackbox Photography to see more beautiful imagery 🙂 You can also see more engagement shoots here on Love My Dress.
Much love,
Annabel xXx
♥