Engagement Photo shoot with Marla Jenkins Photography

Engagement Photo shoot with Marla Jenkins Photography at Gary Point Park in Richmond, British Columbia. Just outside of Vancouver, Canada.

This post comes to you after popular demand from you guys via Instagram and through comments on the blog. You want a little peek into our lives and our wedding planning? Well here it is. I am giving you a little more than a peek. It is a whole array of some of our favourite photos from our engagement session with Marla Jenkins Photography.

Choosing a photographer for our wedding was the hardest part. Mainly because my dad is super picky when it comes to photos. Also, I really wanted to find someone who could capture the day and also get along with. Because (I am told) getting along with your photographer is one of the most important things to think about.

So me and John told my dad to find a whole bunch of photographers that he liked and send them to us. Meanwhile, we would also compile a list of photographers that we liked and send it to him. A week later, we sent each other our lists. And guess what? Marla Jenkins Photography was the only overlap that we had. Somehow me and my dad both found her online and loved her work. So it was really a no brainer who to contact next.

Since me and John are living in Toronto and we are having the wedding in Vancouver, we made it my dad’s job to meet with the photographers. Merging our lists together, we set out a schedule of which photographers to contact. After contacting Marla and setting up a meeting, my dad was convinced that her and her husband would be the perfect fit for us. They were super helpful and friendly, and since they were the only ones on both of our lists, we thought it would be good to book them right away, in case they got snapped up by another couple.

And I am so happy with our decision! We met them a week ago for engagement photos, and they made us feel so comfortable right off the bat that I can honestly say, there wasn’t one photo in the bunch that they took that I didn’t want to keep. Which is rare because, as a couple, we are not the most photogenic pair.

Okay, so enough blah blah about how amazing they are. I know you probably just want to see the photos, so that you can judge for yourself. But for real, you won’t be judging, you will be marvelling. At least I will. This post has some photography goals that I hope to someday attain.

So. Let’s start with how our whole engagement happened.

The ring

In case I didn’t say this before, Marla Jenkins Photography is actually a team of Marla and her husband Peter. While we were taking photos, Marla notices this cute little ladybug (above) and thought that it would look great with my engagement ring. So I take off my ring, and Marla starts taking photos of it with the ladybug while Peter brings us aside and takes more photos of us. Efficient, right?

They also got some gorgeous shots of the ring without the ladybug and on my hand, pictured below. They took one with my hands in John’s pockets, but John was not a fan of it. The photo was gorgeous, but he didn’t like the look of his Costco pants. I seriously doubt anyone would notice. Isn’t it usually the woman who is the most picky about the photos? 😉

Standing Poses

I was sure we would look incredibly awkward when standing still. I know for a fact I do on a regular basis when people take candid photos of me. But, like the professionals that they are, they had a whole bunch of poses up their sleeve for us to try out.

They both had such an eye for detail that when we were doing something strange with our hands our with our stance or whatever, they were quick to tell us to change it.

As you can see in the following progression of photos, we got a lot more comfortable being in front of the camera. And that last standing pose? Maybe a little too comfortable.

Walking Poses

When you are too awkward to stand, you start walking, right?

John is a pacer by nature. He makes me nervous every time he starts working on his thesis because he paces the floor with his paper, clip board and pencil. This boy can’t stay still for a second. So being told to walk seemed the most natural to him, and gave us time to shake out our poses a little.

Seated Poses

These were my favourite, personally. Mainly because I usually am required to stand all day as a teacher, sitting down is one of my favourite things.

This is one of the things I love about Gary Point Park. You can sit everywhere. First we started by sitting in the Japanese garden near the parking lot, then we moved onto a log on the beach. Since me and John came with nothing but the clothes on our back, Marla provided us with a blanket to sit on so that we could sit on the sand. That is the true mark of a professional. Always prepared.

The Kiss

Before we went for the engagement shots, Marla sent us some “Tips for your Engagement Shot”. In it, she outlined what to wear/not wear, to maybe get hair/makeup done and that kissing will be involved.

In preparation for this photo shoot, I cut my hair.. and that’s about it. I could have probably dressed up a little more and put on some makeup, but that is not really how I look day to day. So all I was preparing for was kissing in front of complete strangers.

Me and John are really not much into PDA. We don’t have anything against it, we just aren’t generally affectionate in public. I thought this would be the toughest thing for us.

But looking at the photos, I think we nailed it 😉. It also helped that we had two awesome people helping to make us look good.

Silhouettes in the Sunset

I absolutely love their idea to do silhouettes of us in the sunset. It was so creative, even though at the time, I had no idea what they were doing and how these photos would turn out.

It is always a gamble to take photos around a sunset. Depending on the day and time, you could have something gorgeous, something meh, or nothing at all. We lucked out on the day. I think these photos turned out amazing.

Those are some of the photos we chose, but there are so many more that we love too.

Seriously, if you are looking for a wedding photographer in the Vancouver area, I can’t recommend Marla Jenkins Photography enough. We are so happy with them, and are looking forward to our wedding in 5 months!