Engagement Shots

Never in a million years did I think that we would take engagement photos. I'm not even sure what the purpose for these are, but after reading Weddingbee, it seems as if most people use the photos for their save the dates, invitations, or to display around their wedding. Most engagement photos I've seen online look incredibly romantic and physically close... but those words would probably not be used to describe our relationship.

We love each other very much, but we're not really physically romantic. My fiance is not the type of guy who wants to hug all the time or would put his arm over my shoulder (partly because we're almost the same height, so it's uncomfortable for him). We rarely ever display PDA. As a teacher in a small community, I've completely shunned PDA because these kids and their families are everywhere! And the last thing I need is for some kid to show up to school and talk about how they saw me kissing! Ew! How awkward. Needless to say, we keep our affection very private.

 Thinking of engagement photos just seemed awkward because for him it would be an enforced display of affection in front of someone else, and for me because I'm out of practice. We never thought we would do this. We also thought it was an unnecessary expense.

Then we went to the Break-Up Barbecue.

My fiance was working at a fire station on the north shore, but the five firefighters there were being split up and sent to different stations, thus the Break-Up Barbecue. We met at one guy's house and at and talked and whiled the night away with them and their significant others. In the process we found out that one of the wives was a photographer. We really hit it off and a few days later she offered to take engagement photos of us... for free!

Well, living in Hawaii means living in a multi-ethnic society, most of whom are Asian, and it is very shameful to accept anything for free without giving something in return. So yesterday we allowed her to take our photos and paid her half the amount of what she normally charges.

It was surprisingly fun. I thought Chad wasn't going to go for it at all, but he was asking me about different shirt and pant combinations, what shoes he should wear, should he cut his hair today? It was refreshing. I'm not going to lie, being posed in a various romantic positions was a little uncomfortable at first, but we loosened up after the first half hour and began to enjoy it a little more. Some of the poses felt awkward and probably looked crazy to a random passerby, but I'm sure they'll look great in the photo. I'm so glad we did this, because I think it will make things smoother when we do our wedding photos. I can't wait to see what the pictures look like!