John and Lisa had a fun picnic themed engagement photo complete with homemade cupcakes, sandwiches, and wine. They’ll be getting married next fall in Jacksonville, Florida.

Please enjoy the images from the photo session!

The party was held at the recently opened Hilton Orlando. It was my first time at this gorgeous hotel. The hotel has massive convention center and ballroom space for holding very large events as well as small rooms to host intimate parties such as this engagement ceremony.

This was also my first time photographing a Muslim engagement ceremony. Many of the events of the day are similar to Christian weddings. There is a religious event before the engagement where the couple affirms their commitment to the engagement. After the ceremony, Najoua was presented with various jewelry including the engagement ring.

Family photos then took place in the room where the event was being held (ChampionsGate ballroom). We then took engagement portraits in the beautiful lobby.

The engagement cake by Party Flavors was as beautiful and detailed as any wedding cake. Before the cake cutting, Yassine made a speech, which was a very nice touch, in both English and French. In his speech, Yassine said how happy he was to have moved to the United States, and the best thing about the U.S. was meeting Najoua.

Just like a wedding reception, everyone had a great time dancing and toasting the couple with well wishes.

I wish the best to this sweet couple in their life ahead.

VENDORS
Ceremony – Hilton Orlando (www.thehiltonorlando.com)
Catering – Hilton Orlando (www.thehiltonorlando.com)
Cake – Party Flavors (www.orlandocustomcakes.com)

The previous post showed the start of our portrait session. Molli and Logan recreated a photography session from the 1940s, complete with bright colors, red lips and perfect hair.

We stayed at Rollins College in Winter Park for the second portion of the session. Molli let her hair down, and they both changed in to clothes a lot more common for a portrait session of a couple today.

We revisited a lot of the same locations around Knowles Chapel in Winter Park. We also headed to the old oak tree outside of Rollins Hall. I can’t imagine how old (or heavy) this tree is with two steel beams holding up its’ biggest branches.

We concluded our portrait session the following morning at Cocoa Beach. We met at the Cocoa Beach pier just after sunrise for a swimsuit portrait session. This is also around the same time that Cocoa Beach experienced a huge influx of jellyfish along the coastline. So, needless to say, the photo session was a bit of a challenge, especially because the coast guard was recommending against going in to the water. That still didn’t prevent us from an hour long shoot along the shoreline.

It ended up being like three different photo sessions over two days. We all had a great time during the photo session and Molli and Logan ended up with hundreds of pictures out of it.

Please let me know if you’d be interested in doing a premiere engagement photography session. I have a lot more great ideas and I’m open to yours as well!

You can also see the first half of this portrait session by clicking here: Molli and Logan – A Couples Portrait Session – Winter Park – Part 1

I recently did a premiere couples portrait session with Molli and Logan. The couple met several years ago at the Ohio State University, where they were both attended, and have subsequently graduated from. Molli is currently a graduate student at University of Central Florida in Orlando. While Logan moved out west after graduating from Ohio State.

We chose to do the first part of the portrait session at Rollins College in Winter Park, Florida. Rollins College is the oldest university in Florida, founded in 1885. After checking out the grounds of the university, I know that the portrait session had to take advantage of the amazing architecture at the school.

The couple looked AMAZING in the 1940s style outfits that they wore. Molli, in her red dress, looked as if she had just popped out of a 1943 Coca Cola advertisement. Logan was a natural in front of the camera. The chemistry between these two was fantastic.

We took a lot of the photos around the grounds of the gorgeous Knowles Memorial Chapel. Built in 1932, Knowles Chapel is a beautiful piece of architecture and the grounds around the outsider were gorgeous. I have since put Knowles Chapel on my wish list for wedding ceremony locations that I want to shoot at.

There were so many great pictures over the course of their photo session that I’m going to be breaking up the pictures into three parts. I decided to play around these first photos as well, making them look a little more faded, giving them a classic feel.

I hope that you enjoy these images!

You can also see the second half of this portrait session by clicking here: Molli and Logan – A Couples Portrait Session – Winter Park – Part 2

Their Orlando wedding is almost a year away and many of the details for their day are already planned. Although many men step back and let their fiancée plan the wedding, that’s not the case with this couple. Glenn is as much involved in the planning as Denise, even as much as creating his own account and participating in discussions on the wedding message boards.

We chose to do their engagement session in Celebration, Florida because of all of the fun features in the downtown area, including an unexpected visit from an alligator (ah – the fun things Florida has to offer). It’s such a beautiful town and one of my favorite places to spend a Sunday while walking my dogs. I have photographed several weddings in Celebration before (including the Bohemian Hotel Celebration), however this was the first time I have done an engagement session there.

Glenn and Denise participated in one of my premier engagement sessions. Premier engagement sessions offer more than conventional engagement sessions, and it allows for travelling to different locations. It also gives a chance for the couple to change in to several different outfits. For this session, I met the couple in the late afternoon and we were taking photographs long after the sun had set.

In talking to Glenn and Denise beforehand, we were discussing ideas for the photo session, and I had asked if they were willing to possibly jump in to the fountain. They were excited about that idea and even had some of their own. I do think the water was a couple degrees colder than they were bargaining for though.

I hope you enjoy these photos and I’m looking forward to their wedding next year!

I had to post a little “sneak peek” of their engagement session. Stay tuned to see more images of their photo session in Celebration!

This past weekend was Tiffany and Josh’s wedding in Jacksonville Beach. I’ll be posting some images from that fantastic day in the coming weeks. But, before I do that, I wanted to show some of the images from their engagement shoot.

I met the couple one evening several weeks ago in Ormond Beach for an engagement session. Even though there were several rain postponements, I’m so glad we were able to get together for this shoot. They are a fun couple, and you’ll be seeing more of them on the blog in the near future.

We met at Veterans Memorial Park in Gainesville for an engagement session. The fire ants, giant spiders, bees, and venomous snake and gator warnings were no match for this couple – they were full of smiles and laughs the entire time! I had a great time with them and look forward to their winter wedding ceremony.

On the way back from this road trip, I stopped in Ocala to visit with another bride (whose wedding we’ll be shooting in November) and to tour her ceremony and reception locations.

As a wrap up to the eventful day, I stopped in The Villages, Florida to have some Hungarian sausage from Tony Packo’s – a Toledo, Ohio landmark that oddly also has one other location – a bowling alley in Sumter County, Florida.

I had a fabulous time with this gorgeous couple, who will be getting married later this year, and hope that you enjoy these pictures.

They are an adorable couple who will be getting married in a couple weeks. Here are just a few of the images from the morning.