Mario Cart Engagement Photos - Kristen and Bobby - Zao Island Valparaiso

There’s nothing I love more than a themed engagement session. They’re a blast to shoot, they’re completely unique to every couple, and they capture couples at their absolute best. With the sessions being tailored to the couple’s interests, the final product has so much more value to the couple as compared to a traditional engagement session. Our themed sessions will tell about who the couple is, as opposed to a traditional engagement session simply showing where a couple is. Kristen and Bobby’s Mario Cart engagement session is the perfect example.

For the first half of Kristen and Bobby’s engagement session, we started at the old Methodist Church in Gary, Indiana. When I first got started in photography, some 11 or 12 years ago, I used to shoot out in Gary a few times weekly. There’s so much to explore, and it seemed as though every time I’d visit, I’d find something new and exciting around the next corner. The Methodist Church is particularly fun, as it’s a huge building with multiple floors and seemingly endless rooms. Unfortunately, the church has seen an increasing amount of traffic in the past few and with that, sadly, comes quite a bit of vandalism. What once was a mostly untouched, beautiful architectural ruin, is now largely littered with graffiti and garbage. None the less, if you try hard enough, there are still a few hidden gems to be found amongst the rubble that makes for some pretty wicked backdrops.

During our planning process for Kristen and Bobby’s engagement session, they had the great idea of incorporating some smoke bombs into their photos. This is one of the primary reasons we chose the abandoned church in the first place, as we knew this would make a strikingly dramatic backdrop with the smoke.

Absolutely LOVED the combination of the black and red smoke!

After wrapping up at the Gary Methodist Church for the first portion of their engagement photos, we hopped in the car and and made our way over to Zao Island of Valparaiso for the meat and potatoes of this shoot — the Mario Cart engagement photos!

Upon arrival at Zao Island, we were cheerfully greeted by one of their managers on duty, who we contacted a few weeks prior to approve and confirm our crazy idea for this shoot. Everyone at Zao Island was wonderfully enthusiastic about the shoot, and were more than accommodating to help with anything we needed. We made out way down to the go kart race track, waited for a clearing in the line, and let the fun begin!

It was incredible to see how well Kristen and Bobby got into character! After hearing Bobby’s impersonations, you’d swear he was the voice-over used for Mario in the games — “YA! WHAA! WHOO-HOOO!”