Take it on the Other Side: My E-Session with Christine Chang

Alvaro and I announced our engagement on our Facebook pages back in April of this year. It was news that no one saw coming, well at least for most of the people who know me well. I was never one of those girls who dreamt about her wedding day or planned out her entire ceremony and bridesmaids' colors before even having an idea of who the groom would be. I wasn't even sure I believed in the whole idea of marriage as a lasting union, given the high divorce rate and second-hand experience throughout my childhood of my friends' parents splitting up.

Despite my uncertainty in the eternal "I Do's", I remained a hopeless romantic and secretly wished that my Prince Charming would come along and that he'd be different from the rest. 

Turns out, he was waiting for me in Peru.

After seeing our announcement, Christine Chang-- a very talented photographer friend of mine who I had never actually met in person but had followed on Facebook for years-- offered to take our engagement photos for us since she was coming to Lima for a few days.

You can imagine my excitement-- I was ecstatic! A photographer that I admired was going to grace Alvaro and I with her talent in our gorgeous hometown of Barranco in Lima, Peru. It was a dream come true.

She came over early on a Monday to our apartment and took out her camera right away to capture us getting ready...

We walked down our street to find good backgrounds for the shots and immediately saw this gorgeous blue casona with red flowers. Such bright, vivid colors in Barranco-- that's why I love shooting here.

Primping each other AKA eye booger cleaning

Another great photographer friend, Carla Choy, came along and took some behind-the-scenes shots.

Gotta love that Latin passion.

We found such cool scenes and props around our neighborhood.  These mopeds were in front of a hotel and we quickly jumped on to snap some shots before making our getaway.

The best part about the shoot, besides the pictures, was how fun it was! I've never had my very own engagement shoot, but I always have a blast shooting couples just having a good time. It was great to be on the other side of the camera and not worrying about having control. I trusted Christine to capture us in our best light, and she did just that.

Doing photo sessions outdoors (especially in Barranco) is fabulous for finding hidden treasures like these hanging leaves and flowers. They create such a gorgeous and unique backdrop, not to mention a romantic scene for lovebirds like us.

Piggy-back fail! He's a tall glass of water, that guy.

We were laughing so hard we could hardly keep our composure for some of the pictures-- but that's the beauty of it all, we didn't have to.

Engagement photos are so valuable for a number of reasons: 

1. They help you get comfortable with your photographer. This is especially important if the same photographer will be covering your wedding day.  What better chance to get to know each other and find out their shooting style so you know what to expect on the big day? 

2. Great material for the wedding announcement/invitation cards. Invitations that contain a beautiful photograph of the happy couple serve as great souvenirs for your guests to hold on to. Not to mention, they're so much more personal and lovely.

3. Great material for the wedding reception. We can put these photographs in a frame for our guests to sign at the reception and have a one-of-a-kind keepsake of our day. We could also project a slideshow and include these pics along with baby photos while guests are waiting for us to arrive at the reception while we get our after-ceremony photos on the beach taken.

Mabel and Jeroen printed the engagement photos I took of them on little thank you notes for their guests and used them as place cards at the tables (they put them in envelopes with the name of the guest on the outside). They were a really nice touch and fun to look at while we were waiting, since each guest at the table had a different photo.
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So there you have it-- our engagement shoot was a great success and it was such a beautiful day with Christine and Carla. We can't thank them enough for the gorgeous photographs and memories.
Love you ladies!