Tag Archives: nwi engagement photography

Every once in a while, you encounter a couple that just “clicks.” They have beautiful chemistry together, they’re comfortable and open with each other, and you have that gut feeling that they’re a couple that’s going to last forever. Jackie and Jennifer are one of those couples. From the moment I met them, I knew they were going to be a blast, and I couldn’t wait to learn more about them and to start telling their story!

Both Jackie and Jennifer have a heavy involvement with animal foster and rescue. Along with a few dogs of their own, they often have a visitor or two (or three). When it comes time to spending some quality time outdoors with the doggos, Deep River County Park is one of their favorite spots. With so many memories tied to Deep River, we decided this would be a great spot to start their engagement photos!

Just as I assumed when I first me these two, Jackie and Jen have such a beautiful connection. Their interactions are comfortable, natural, and real, and they had nothing but smiles and laughter the entire evening.

During the spring and summer months, Jackie and Jen spend a lot of their free time out on their Harley. It would be a shame not to include their beautiful bike in their photos!

If the Harley wasn’t enough to prove that Jackie and Jen are certified badasses, they brought along their beautiful new Dodge Challenge RT to throw into the mix! Add an incredible graffiti wall in Gary and these two beautiful ladies are ready for a magazine cover!

This session wouldn’t have been complete without a few solo photos of their baby, and a burnout to “drive” it home.

For our next stop, we made our way to the Aquatorium (Gary, IN) — one of my favorite spots for northwest Indiana engagement photos.

Ready, set, SKIP! Seriously…I adore this couple so much. 😀

Thanks again, Jackie and Jen, for the opportunity to celebrate with you two! I can’t wait for the big day!!

Interested in chatting more about YOUR engagement or wedding? Visit my CONTACT page and drop me a line. I’d love to chat more!

By Matt Bigelow

Engagement sessions are often observed as an opportunity to celebrate a new chapter in a couple’s relationship. All eyes are on the future, as wedding plans start in full force. While it’s important to think about the future, we should also consider that engagement sessions are also a chance to reflect. They’re a time to look back on your time together leading up to the current moment, and remember how you got to where you are this very day. For Tess and Josh’s engagement session, this is exactly what they had in mind.

For Tess and Josh, the plan was to reenact their very first date! We were to visit every spot they shared their time together on that date, reliving those pivotal moments that got them where they are today. For our first stop, which actually happened to be their last stop on the actual date, we made our way to Ogden Gardens of Valparaiso!

After Ogden Gardens, we took a ride over to Yomazing of Valpo. This was their first stop on their date, and what a sweet choice, if I do say so myself! Solid move, Josh. 😉

And how appropriate…Yomazing serves the BEST gummy bears in the world, which just so happen to be from Tess’ family’s candy factory, Albanese Candy Factory! Load em’ up!

And one more for good measure!!

Our next spot was a hoot, and definitely requires a bit of back story. On their first date, once they finished up with Yomazing, Josh was trying to come up with something to keep the ball rolling. Turns out he was in the market for some new compression sleeves, and figured…what the heck…let’s go to Dicks Sporting Goods and see what happens! Just as you’d expect, as any couple that’s meant to be together, it really didn’t matter what they were doing — they simply made it work.

Oooo…caught yourself a keeper there, ay, Tess?? Hardy har har…. 🙂

Our last stop on the date day reenactment wasn’t a part of their real first date, but it’s something we couldn’t pass up while we were in the area. We made a quick stop over to the incredible Dagger Mountain Roastery for a delicious cup-o-joe before wrapping up for the day. PS…if you haven’t been there yet, you MUST give it a try. Great stuff, and even more amazing staff.

Can’t wait for the big day you two! Thank you so much for allowing me to be a part of this special time in your lives!!

Looking to book YOUR engagement session? Head over to our CONTACT page and drop us a line! We’d love to hear from you!

By Matt Bigelow

Every once in a while, a couple comes along that is literally down for ANYTHING. Their minds are completely open and ready and willing to do something wild and crazy. For us photographers, this is the type of creative freedom that we live for. Where the possibilities are only limited by what our minds can conjure up. Brittany and Ryan…are one of those couples.

While discussing with them some ideas for their engagement session, they made it loud and clear right off the bat that they were ready and willing to do something crazy…something completely wacky and unconventional…something that they would be able to talk about for the rest of their lives and remember forever. This is when the gears really started turning. As always, it’s great to have some sort of starting point — some sort of inspiration or direction. Brittany and Ryan’s inspiration just so happened to be from one of our favorite shoots of all time from a few years back, our first paint session with our dear friends Rachel and Daniel. After discussing this with them at great lengths, Brittany and Ryan loved the idea of the paint session so much that we knew we had to take a similar direction, but give it some sort of twist.

Enter…..the Paint-filled Super Soaker Session!

Ok, so maybe they weren’t Super Soakers, but actually just some $9 off-brand grocery store water guns. After checking through the selection, these were the coolest styled guns I could find and seemed to fit right in. I figured we would dress Brittany and Ryan in some white painter’s coveralls, shoe covers, gloves and goggles, so we’d better match the guns as well! A few coats of white spray paint and we were off!

Lets get at it, shall we?!

Brittany and Ryan size up and face-off!

Lets the games begin!!

A quick pull-back of the scene!

We’ll take another brief intermission from the madness for a quick behind-the-scenes look at the lighting setup (for all of you photographers out there). Here’s our lovely model/assistant, Cavia, standing in. 😉

And we commence…

When exploring abandoned locations like these, you truly never know what you’re going to find. Sometimes it’s dead animals, sometimes old remnants from the glory days….and sometimes paint-covered loonies taking engagement photos! This family (parents right outside of the building) was doing a little bit of exploring of their own when then stumbled on our shoot. This was one of the rare times that someone actually approached US and asked us if it was OK that they were here…it’s usually the other way around. Anyways, super nice people! 🙂

Quick! Photobomb!!