Wheeling Golden Hour Engagement Photos

Hello Hello Hello again!  Happy Friday one more time!! I’m SO pumped about this one!! It’s my last “work” thing to do in the office before I’m off to the post office to mail an engagement album and a wedding album!! WOOO!!  I can’t wait for you to meet these two and to see their engagement photos!  I have A LOT to say about ALL of this too so sit back and relax and enjoy this Wheeling Golden Hour Engagement Session!  Meet Aubrey and Nick everyone!  Give them all your HBP love!  I mean…I’m loving this already and I was there! HA!  Just look at them!

Aubrey was sweet right out of the gate.  She asked for information and came back with a “we decided we have to have you” line when she booked.  She didn’t know it, but I was digitally hugging her from my office!  I just had that “feeling” we were going to make a great team!  She also booked two of my favorite vendors…Jay Morris and Brian Oliver!! Those guys like to call us the “trifecta” and I kind of love it! HA!  We’ve definitely done enough weddings to know how to work together so I told this couple they definitely had nothing to worry about come their wedding day.  I mean, Jay once filmed WHILE holding a large umbrella over both our heads!! It’s true!  We’ve all been through many weddings together!  But anyway, I saw this light and my wedding photographer heart exploded.  As I pulled up about 20 minutes early, these two were already there.  I told them they are my star clients!! I love punctual personalities!  But yea…before I even got to oOOoO-ing and AHHHH-ing all over this light, Aubrey whipped out some example photos for me and I could have screamed with delight!! What I was envisioning in my head was practically what she was showing me on her phone!! And so we went and made magic!

From what she’d shown me, it wasn’t JUST about the light but also about organic and honest expressions.  Good news for them, I’m a total nut when posing my couples (if you’ve been in front of my camera…you know).  So, we ended up laughing…A LOT!  Aubrey tells me Nick is more laid back but he most certainly took the lead here even directing Aubrey at times.  Maybe that was his way of making it go faster? HA! I have no idea but he was definitely a star male subject for me!  Had he not admitted he hated photos, I would have never known!  Nick…does that mean I can take full advantage of your cooperation on the wedding day?!
PLEASE?! Aubrey says photos are very important to her and she loves the memories so I hope her blogs can meet the mark too!

Things I love in a photo?…wildflowers and weeds (it’s true).. .Good light.  An AMAZING couple…check…check…and check!!!  Aubrey told me she brought a “P” and I kept saying the “P Picture”…it sounded pretty ridiculous but we still got lots of laughs.  I’m usually not a “golden hour” light kind of shooter but it was just all coming together so well and I was literally jumping up and down over these!  Also, these are directly beside a parking lot!  So, when I tell people “I can shoot in a parking lot…”  I 100% mean it!  At one point, I was even laying on the asphalt! HA!

We couldn’t stop laughing together!  These two have been a couple for 10 years…10 YEARS!  They were high school (middle school) sweethearts!  Aubrey said Nick had a grand plan to do a romantic proposal with their fur baby with a cute scarf that said “will you marry my daddy?” on it.  Just like a lot of us girls (me included for my own proposal), Aubrey says she was hangry and ruined it one night when he returned home and accused Nick of being “weird” all week long.  They probably should have a support group for all the men who’s brides-to-be gave them a hard time leading up to the ring.  I mean…seriously…I did it too.  I threw a huge tantrum during my proposal because I just could NOT understand why my husband was forcing me onto a freezing gazebo! HA!  It all worked out for Aubrey and Nick too though because he went and got the ring and she said YES, of course!  And now look at them…

There wasn’t one pose that went wrong with these two beautiful people!  They’re just so easy to be around too!

Here soon I’m going to introduce you to a new pose that was invited this evening!  But first…more light!!!

I had them dance.  Aubrey was ready to get right down and bust a move and Nick and I were dying laughing! So, he slowed them down!  Yes..slow dancing was what I wanted!

I just can’t with these two!! AHHHH!!  Isn’t is dreamy?!  At one point, I told them they belonged in a romance novel!

Aubrey wanted some stone originally too but I just knew she’d probably love the ones with the pretty light more!  Nonetheless, you all know I like to give my couples what they want!  So, we headed over and took some real quick while I was giving the pretty light the side eye!  I didn’t want it to go away because I had a few more ideas before we wrapped things up!  I still love these and I feel like they are more “Hannah”?  Maybe?  I don’t know.  I can’t choose which ones are really my favorites!  BUT…here is the new pose I told you about!  The conversation happened really naturally.  Aubrey mentioned how kiss photos are weird sometimes.  I totally agreed.  I told her us photographers are trained to take them right before their lips meet, when they meet, and then right after.  Then, it occurred to me to have them smile and I described it as the “creepy smile”.  You know…you go in smiling really creepy like and slow…kiss…and go back out of the kiss with the same creepy smile.  AND THEN …this kiss photo and pose was born and they nailed it.  After I said that, they just kept doing it perfectly and I just kept thinking…Ooo my goodness ME!  YES YES YESSSSSS!

I couldn’t side eye the light any longer…so we went back to the original spot!  LOOOOKKK!!! “Creepy Kiss” for the win!! WINNNN!  Who is laughing?  I mean, it totally doesn’t look creepy but just imagine it happening! HA!

They couldn’t do it wrong.  I’m telling ya…it’s amazing to me how these things just come to be with the names.  Yep.  I give them ridiculous names like “the shoulder sniff” and now “the creepy kiss”.  I can 100% assure you they will NEVER EVER forget it though when time counts and we’re doing this again at their wedding!  Those photos are going to be magical!  I just know it!  AND it better not rain…IT BETTER NOT!  I told them we may have to come back to this spot!  So, here is a black and white just because…enjoy!

I also saw this sky and just had to have a few!  So, we drove to a different spot and took a few!

What a way to end the night, right?!  AHHHH!! It’s just perfect!  This was the last photo in their gallery!

That’s it!  That’s a wrap on this one too!  OooO poor Jay.  I can just hear him now poking fun at all my Hannah excitement when their wedding rolls around.  At the last wedding he said, “Here she comes.  Be prepared for the energy to sky rocket now”.  HA!  Then, Brian will most likely give me a curfew to getting to the reception since I’ll probably be a nut with the amount of photos I’ll want to take!! EEEEK!  For real though…these two are planning a (hopefully COVID free) June wedding next year at Oglebay!  They’re thinking moderate size with eggplant/plum and mauve colors with hints of silver/gray (Yessssssss, girl…YESSS).  Aubrey says she loves eucalyptus and the greenery vibe so I’m sure we’re going to have some amazing details to photograph!! EEEEK!  Check back next year!

One more time…congrats to Aubrey and Nick!

OooO yes…and this was what was happening before I even took my first official photo…outtakes!! HA!  I’m lucky they are so easy to get along with because I was already snapping the behind the scenes!

Nick wasn’t having it! So he fixed it himself…I love it!

That’s it!  One more stop and I’m off for vacation!! WOOOOO!! Thanks for reading!