Engagement Shoot! Eeeeeeee!!!!

OhmygoshOhmygoshOhmygosh! Our photographer, the wonderful and talented Danielle Gillett, just sent me a link to our engagement photos! Aaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhh!!!!

(tanya's favorite)



(mark's favorite, which he now refers to as "The Shot")

We had our photo shoot at the Lighthouse Field State Park in Santa Cruz exactly 9 days ago. I am guilty of counting the days and of blog-stalking my photographer for all those days...until today. Woohoo! Blog-stalking no more!

We LOVE our photos and we LOVE working with Danielle. We gave ourselves extra pats on the back for choosing a fantastic photographer that we truly got along with. The entire shoot, we were talking, laughing, exchanging stories and jokes. We eventually forgot that we were doing our engagement photo session. She would occasionally direct us (especially at the start, where we felt a bit awkward), but it never felt "posed". Oh, to be artfully carefree is such hard work! LOL!

The Preps

My very good friend (and bridesmaid) Katie and I went shopping for my dress a week before the shoot. We instantly found the dress at Macy's, and we thought it looked perfect for the meadow-y shots that I had in mind. It's simple with enough intricate details. It made me look carefree and happy to be in a field of flowers. The sandals were pretty quick to find after that.

My makeup was done at MAC (in ValleyFair), by a wonderful person named Brett. I told him: "I just want a better version of myself...not somebody else". And he totally got what I meant. Had I not booked my wedding-day makeup artist already, I would have hired Brett right away (speaking of my other super fantastic wedding-day makeup artist, please remind me to write about my initial meeting with her).

I was planning on doing my own hair, since it's not too much work anyway (what with Tita Marilyn magically sprinkling it with fairy dust and had it rebonded for free while we were in the Philippines). But, we were running late that day...so I decided to just drop by my mom's suki salon to have my hair flat ironed for good measure.

As for Mark's preps, I don't even have to write a sentence about it. I envy guys and their no-fuss grooming. Anyhoo, I think we looked pretty decent.


The Shoot

As I mentioned, we went to Santa Cruz and met with Danielle at the Lighthouse parking lot. We were wondering where we would do the shoot until Danielle pointed to a huge field of wild mustard (weeds, really) across the road. The weeds were hip high...and as I was wearing a dress...well, you could imagine how itchy I was after the shoot. Initially, I constantly asked Mark to "trample the weeds before I go there!" After the warm-up shots, I said "oh what the heck! i'll just drink Benadryl when we get home!"

Aside from trampling weeds and climbing on fallen trees, we had to deal with the fog rolling in. Santa Cruz gets notoriously cold when the fog rolls in during sunset. So there I was, shivering in my flimsy, low-backed dress amidst the itchy weeds. I say, it's the perfect recipe for calling in sick the next day! Hooray! (I'd take any excuse to call in sick)

Okay, fine, I'm exaggerating. It wasn't that much of a discomfort (although I've been monitoring my skin for tick bites the whole week, scared as I am of contracting Lyme Disease). The hours went by quickly, we had fun, and we left very happy and satisfied. And to quote Danielle, "it's just like a 3 hour-long make-out session!" Yey!

The Photos

Our initial reaction was: WOW! I didn't know we could look like THAT! Danielle is awesome awesome awesome! See, during the shoot, we had no clue how it would all eventually look like. Danielle showed us a couple of shots from her camera, which of course got us super excited...but to see the final output...oh man! It looks so romantic and intimate but not porn-y (as some e-photos tend to be, what with all the kissing); with simple and natural body language that conveys a lot of love. We're amazed at how she got all that.

I also LOVE how she uses natural light. Never in the entire shoot did she use flash. It's like her trademark, and that's one of the main reasons that attracted us to her. Texture. That's what we love when looking at her photos. After the e-shoot, we felt like we can't wait for October! We want MORE of the fantastic-looking photos! More more more!

And with that, let me end this post by giving you more. ;)

-posted by tanya-

P.S. Mark made me write this to make it official (pero ilonggohon ko na lang para di ma inchindihan sang iban): indi kami ka-uyon sang kanta nga gin gamit! Hambal ni Mark "pwede ta sya hambalon nga islan ya lang ang kanta?" HAHAHAHA! Kita mo lang gid kung ano ka pisli-an?!