Victoria & Alex are ENGAGED! These two Chicagoans are to be wed in South Bend, Indiana coming up in 6 months on May 11th, 2019 and we’re so excited to photograph them at their venue of the Armory coming up next year (an industrial chic venue here in South Bend which opened early this year about 10 months ago which we’ll be at next Friday)! You may remember Victoria from her grandma Irene’s 98th Birthday Portrait Session that Victoria commissioned and celebrated with her grandma last October with her here in South Bend’s Healthwin. Well, recently just weeks ago this October they along with many family members celebrated Irene’s 99th Birthday here in South Bend! We’ve been so happy to follow along as their family celebrates together and takes care of one another. Jenny and Victoria have known each other since the age of 6 when they met in 1st Grade at Christ the King and attended school together for a whopping 12 years in South Bend (through high school at St. Joe), so it’s been a long 26 year friendship made all the better by shared deeply held beliefs & newfound appreciation of each others’ other halves. We’ve enjoyed catching up more throughout the past year!
Mid-week last week we had a rescheduling for a second time with a family for their Family Portrait Session that was to be Saturday evening, so since Victoria and Alex had just told us of their desire to have their Engagement Session captured by us ASAP to get out their Save the Dates before everyone starts to get loads of Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, & New Years cards, these two were quick to snatch up the Saturday evening date! (Prior we had only had the 17th or 18th available weeks from then, so they were thrilled that they no longer had to worry about the threat of upcoming snow that we’ll be having in just a day and a half here!) We had just a couple already work packed days to get together the locations for their Session, but it all came together quickly with the schedule, so we were thrilled once we finished all of our Saturday morning work by 1 p.m. and could head over to Chicago to capture these two! Without further adieu, Victoria & Alex’s Engagement Session!
We had no idea prior, but Saturday’s Engagement Session for these two was also their SIX Year Anniversary-!! We were absolutely thrilled when we heard that and were completely honored to be able to spend time with them on such a momentous day in their relationship! Victoria and Alex are a hilarious, genuine couple with the dedication and love to stand the test of time as evidenced by their already 6 years together. They reflect our favorite characteristics of couples: Easy going, classy, sarcastic, honest, hard working, kind, warm, loving, responsible, and giving. Their candor knows no bounds and we really appreciate that as we can often be a bit blunt much of the time.
When we had all met together last we had a blast laughing together in our office in Indiana. We hadn’t seen these two in the two months since then (summer/ the start of September), but had chatted with them then for hours in person about their relationship, tentative wedding plans, and life which all really gave us an accurate feel for their relationship. They like us were in their 5th year together and were extremely honest and open about their relationship, how they met, their past, and their personalities. We shared ours too and really found that we all mixed well together since bluntness doesn’t scare any of us which had us laughing though most of our time together even if the topics were serious or ridiculously funny. We absolutely love being around them and were so excited when things were recently finalized for their wedding because we really want to make their day the best day ever for them since in our books they truly deserve it!
For their Engagement Session we met these two at Alex’s work place, then headed over to our first spot. Though not ideal at that specific time since a few wedding parties showed up at our exact spot right then, the 4 of us utilized patience and class (which came in handy around one particularly extremely rude & classless photographer and bride). We were so appreciative of Victoria & Alex’s patience with a frustrating situation and were so thrilled that we were able to force some space away from the other wedding parties and photographers. Some of our favorite photographs of these two were at this very location by the water with a great view of the city! By the end we were all laughing at how ridiculous the situation was with droves of bridal parties around us, but were somehow able to get back to focusing on the most important things at hand: the love between Alex & Victoria!
The next spot we headed to was a spot Jenny had stumbled upon with a friend 6 years ago in Chicago. We love the oval shapes shapes of the odd structure itself and again backdrop and thought these two would stun in these spots which they definitely did! This spot was shockingly more swarmed with people than The Bean with a whopping 35 to 40 photographers capturing Family Portrait Sessions and Engagement Sessions within a few feet of us, so we didn’t spend long here and again used patience and tact to wait our turn. In the meantime we took photos on the outside of the cool honeycomb structure and all joked about how the others were all elbowing each other out of the way for fall leaves in photographs (which these two specifically didn’t want). It really was the #1 most ridiculous situation we’ve ever been in to photograph a couple, so there was nothing we could all do but laugh, get a handful of photos, and get out of there ASAP afterward without tripping on the 35 to 40 mostly rude photographers and their clients. We’re so glad that we were there with Victoria and Alex since they could at least between claustrophobia laugh with us about how ridiculous it all was! It’s a cool spot, but most of all we loved walking there and back with them from the car and chatting about family and additionally how their wedding plans finally fell into place! It was definitely these in-between moments not filled with hundreds of people where we really saw their love for one another and family as well as dedication to each other to really make their wedding day classy and worthy of their love for one another.
Since Alex suggested it, we then headed over to The Bean. We had some people there oddly insisting that they wanted to assistant us while we photographed these two, but instead we snapped a few sunset portraits of Victoria and Alex by ourselves, then set up the tripod and light to take photos that we could later combine in Photoshop to sort of “erase” the hundred people who gathering around The Bean to look at it. The Bean is one of the most iconic structures in Chicago and whenever we go to Chicago we like to take people there to show them the neat reflection of the city as they awe at the Bean’s size, so it was a perfect spot for these two Chicagoans to represent their city. At the end we then captured some dusk portraits of Victoria & Alex in other areas of Millennium Park and then headed to our last spot suggested by Victoria!
Our last spot was a great reprieve from the chaos and cameras of the day! We captured Victoria & Alex after sunset with the beautiful lights of the city surrounding them as they held hands and leaned on one another. They were even great sports all the way up to the end braving traffic to stand in the street-!!
All-in-all Victoria and Alex had to deal with the most adversity we’ve ever experienced during an Engagement Session in the past 10 years and passed with flying colors! If any couple can keep it together during a plethora of disrespect by strangers during their Anniversary and Engagement Session, then they can deal with ANY adversity that life throws them as a couple. We were so frustrated on their behalf and tried to keep the day moving (along while telling other photographers what was appropriate and what was not and finally getting clearly selfish people to please move aside/ share space for a second), but also so impressed that even after all of that were positive! They were so giving that they even took us to dinner afterward showing us one of the best (secret) places that we’ve ever eaten in Chicago (which is saying a lot)-! We happily unwound and chatted away at dinner and let the chaos of the day float away while taking in the warmth and kindness (as well as humor) of these two.
Congratulations, Victoria & Alex on your engagement and we hope that you had fun during your Engagement Session-!! We can’t wait to hear how the final plans unravel in the next 6 months (and in the immediate can’t wait for you to see your entire gallery and which photos you choose for your Save the Dates)! Thank you so, so much again for making things happen last second to plan the Engagement Session and for your patience and humor. You truly make any situation a lively, funny time which couldn’t have come in more handy this weekend!
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*Unrelated: We’ve still yet to share this past weekend’s Family Portrait Session or recent Headshot Session, Adoption Family Portrait Session, or Commercial Trucking Session and also have some final Fall Sessions this coming weekend (Engagement and Family Portrait)! We’ll be sharing Ricky and Rosina’s Engagement Session next Weekly Wednesday with Fall Family Portrait Sessions coming the following weekend just a day prior to Thanksgiving to celebrate family! The next 2 weeks are absolutely jam-packed every single day, so we’re excited to share all of these upcoming amazing things!
We were recently showcased in 3 separate articles for our photography, the most recent being this article from Wedding Day Magazine: http://weddingday-online.com/wedding-articles/meet-photographers-jenny-and-jason-photography?fbclid=IwAR1qI6zhsvlO-xhms_uJqZ6Loj4WIEtgXO5HU17p4nuwIHQw6KVWTN0Nt1s We have more features to come with the next coming up in a December magazine, so stay tuned for that-!
We now have 6 physical wedding albums left to make in December (or earlier if clients choose their photos prior) having just finished, printed, and sent off 3 more and 800 photos to print in December, so we have a crazy 1.5 months left of 2018 photo work before launching full-force into 2019! We’ll be upping all of our pricing and packages semi significantly come January 1st, 2019, so things will be pretty non-stop for us the rest of this year! We’ve also filled up comfortably with 2019 weddings and are still booking 2020 and 2021 weddings, so we’re excited for meeting more couples in the future!