After every engagement session, I make sure to post a sneak peek for my couples on my Facebook page 🙂 I like to do that so they can automatically see a photo from their session and get excited to see more! The photo I posted right after Lauren & Steve’s engagement session is the gorgeous one that starts off this post. I mean, how picture-perfect is that photo!? It automatically got a ton of LIKES and comments from all of their family and friends, which is something I expected, but something I was not expecting was all the personal messages I got from that photo. This has quickly become one of my favorite images because the response to this photo has been HUGE! People love it! I mean, MY family and MY friends were even leaving me personal messages saying how blown away they were by this photo. I really can’t take credit for any of it… I just took the photo. Lauren & Steve made it what it is, a GORGEOUS photo. They brought Lauren’s awesome colorful bicycle along with them as a great prop, picked the Manasquan Inlet as their dream location for their engagement session and the sky, ocean and seagulls in the background made it all come together beautifully. Than just were their adorable selves and BAM! Already one of my favorite photos ever!!

Lauren & Steve’s engagement session is going to blow your mind. Not only because they are simply gorgeous and just the cutest together but because this is NOT a summer engagement session. Your eyes are deceiving you!! Their session actually took place on one of the COLDEST days in October. And when you’re by the ocean, it feels ten times COLDER than it really is outside! There are negatives and positives to this. The obvious negative was we were going to cold! (Yes, WE. It is NOT easy clicking your fingers when they’re frozen! lol) The positive is there wasn’t many people out on the beach that day! Plus thanks to Hurricane Joaquin, the dunes were brought up SO high that we had to hike up over them and had the beach all to ourselves. What made this location even more special was how meaningful it was to the both of them. There’s nothing I love more than capturing a couple in a location that is so important to them and for Lauren & Steve, that’s what Manasqaun is to them. It’s the city Lauren & her friends (and my past bride and groom!) Kayla & Aaron rented out a house one winter… and guess who was renting a house right down the block? Steve! It was in the doorway of their rented house that they shared their first kiss. The first kiss that almost didn’t happen when after hanging out late one night, Steve left to go home and INSTANTLY knew he had to go back and kiss her. And he did 🙂 How romantic is that?? Even more romantic? When he knew he wanted to ask Lauren to marry him, he KNEW it had to happen in that house. He went to the house this summer where new tenants were renting it out, asked for their permission to propose to his girlfriend and of COURSE they let him! He blindfolded her, drove her around for 40 minutes even though it was only 5 minutes away from them (to totally throw her off!) and when she took off her blindfold… there they were. In the doorway where they had shared their first kiss 2 years earlier. He got down on one knee and the rest is history. Naturally we HAD to grab photos in front of this house that means so much to them! After an outfit change we headed into the dunes to photograph these two along with their next prop… Steve’s guitar 🙂 LOVE those photos!! Who knew a guitar could be such a great prop!? And these two are naturals! All I told them to do was sit on the ground and the rest was captured organically. LOVE it.

I not only love this session but I genuinely love Lauren and Steve! Before they had even booked their venue – they contacted me to make sure I was available for their wedding date. If that isn’t the biggest honor in the world, I don’t know what is! At our first meeting, the three of us met up at a local restaurant and ended up chatting about their wedding plans, sharing appetizers (I still talk about those amazing pigs in blankets!) and sharing drinks for almost TWO hours. And once their engagement session was over, we grabbed some hot chocolates to warm up and just kept chatting! And if Lauren happens to look familiar, it’s because she is the THIRD of her group of girlfriends to become a #tepbride! (Hey Kayla and Nicole! ;)) It’s SO fun seeing all my couples over and over again at each others weddings and getting to know them so much better during their sessions. Lauren & Steve are no exception. From the minute we met, it’s been so FUN working with them that I knew their engagement session would be just as great and it was. A great location, a wonderful couple – what more could a photographer want? I’m SO thrilled to share my favorite images from Lauren & Steve’s wedding day! I hope this gets you as excited for their wedding day next year as it does for me!! Lauren & Steve, thanks for such a fun afternoon (and the hot chocolate!) Hope you LOVE these photos!! 🙂