Nicole & Joe are the exact definition of what a TEP bride is! (that means Tina Elizabeth Photography bride, for those who don’t know!) I’m always asked by friends and family “how do you know a couple is the right one for you?” and most of the time I describe what a #tepbride is by saying a few things! They found me through a past couple of mine who raved about me, they are incredibly excited about the wedding planning process, they look at me as not just a wedding vendor but as a friend and they are SO excited about their engagement sessions and wedding photos! Luckily that is the majority of my wonderful brides and Nicole & Joe fill each and every one of those definitions to the T!

Nicole found me through her best friend Kayla, who I’ll be photographing getting married this August! Nicole & Joe are becoming husband and wife next July but I’m SO excited I get to see them again before then! They have been SO excited about every aspect of their wedding photography and having brides and grooms like this make my job SO enjoyable! They booked me last October and since then we’ve been exchanging countless emails back and forth prepping for their session. My brides will NEVER annoy me when they do this because it only gets me more excited for their session. Nicole & Joe decided on shooting their Engagement Session in the adorable town of Spring Lake. I had never been to this town so I, of course, showed up earlier to familiarize myself with all the cute little spots and oh. my. god. I fell in LOVE with this town! It was so quaint and adorable and the beach? Um, we basically had that ALL to ourselves. It was the BEST.

Would you believe it if I told you that we captured their engagement session practically ONE YEAR to the day that Joe proposed to Nicole, on this very beach! How CRAZY is that!? It made their session even more special and I’m so happy the timing of things worked out that way. It was a beautiful day, not too hot, and despite my lovely burnt hand – this session was absolutely perfect and has quickly become one of my favorites! 🙂 I’m so excited to share my favorite images from their engagement session & hope you love them too! Nicole & Joe – thank you for such a wonderful day, for totally taking care of me and my hand (what a story! lol) and for the DELICIOUS ice cream after your session! I had the best time with you both and can not wait for next July!! Enjoy!

Nicole made this adorable SAVE THE DATE sign herself! So crafty 🙂

Spring Lake is full of these gorgeous, Victorian homes that were just DYING to be our backdrop 🙂

Before they changed, we grabbed photos on the beach just as the sun was starting to set. These first photos on the beach are SO much warmer and sunnier than the rest but I loved it!

LOVE these! It is NOT easy to take photos when water is rushing to the shore and getting you SOAKED… but they rocked it 🙂

We finished their session on the quiet boardwalk 🙂 Such a great way to end a wonderful day!

LOVE!! Be sure to leave Nicole & Joe some sweet comments below 🙂