DuPont State Forest Engagement Photos

Sharing our DuPont State Forest engagement photos with you! Because we love them, and hope to fuel some inspiration when you are looking for ideas of your own!

All photos are courtesy of Carolyn Marie Photography.

It’s no secret that Chad and I are gettin’ murried in like 35 days. Things are about to get real, ya’ll. So I have been compiling all the wedding things and am going to share them with you! Starting with … engagement photos. I adore my photographer. Finding a photographer you love is important because you will literally spend your whole wedding day with that person (or persons) in your face.

I found Carolyn in a Facebook ad, of all places. Immediately I fell in love with her style and the way all of her photos tell a story. We felt very firm in our ideas of what images we wanted to take away from our wedding. At the end of the day, the photos are all you have left of the celebration. Neither of us were very concerned with having a bunch of pose-ey formal portraits (though we will have a few because it’s not often we get all these people together looking dapper). We want the candids from the reception. The people we love laughing and dancing together. Sharing good food. Having another drink.

We want our own expressions while we recite our vows. We want someone to capture who we are as a couple and how we choose to express that through this one big shin-dig we planned. After meeting Carolyn (and taking her cookies), Chad and I both knew that it was just the right fit. Great photos were one of the things we budgeted for, and we were happy to find that Carolyn Marie Photography fell right in the middle with pricing. She includes a complimentary engagement shoot with several of her packages. This is so you can get to know each other. It also helps you learn what it feels like to have a camera lens peeking into your relationship.

Carolyn was terrific at making us feel comfortable. The laughter in these photos is genuine. It was humid as hell and I was hiking in flip flops. My hair was basically in dreads by the end of the afternoon. But we played games and goofed around, and the end results were AWESOME. Scroll to the end for more info on location and nailing your engagement photo shoot.

One of my very favorites^^^ It looks like we are dancing! Really I was just trying not to fall off the rock.

I should also mention that there were TWO shoots. For the first I’m in a red dress. I love that dress, but I was definitely not 100% comfortable. We were also running from a thunderstorm. We’d requested an engagement shoot either with a waterfall (because we got engaged in front of a waterfall) or in a canoe (because we are getting married in Lake Lure, NC and wanted to incorporate some of the kitschy things to do there). The thunderstorm completely foiled all of our plans. Carolyn managed to get some gorgeous shots in what looks like a secret garden tunnel of green, and then she offered to try again.

My favorite photos are from the second shoot. I was barefoot (which is way more par for my course) and in a long flowy dress, which is how I am most comfortable unless I’m in yoga pants.

Takeaways…

• BE COMFORTABLE for your photo shoots. It shows!
• Trust your photographer – they are the experts and you are paying for that knowledge!
• Communicate your vision – this can be tricky. Use your words.
• Be yourself. These are photos you will cherish forever! You won’t love them if they don’t feel like you and your partner.

Locations…

All of these photos were taken in the North Carolina Mountains. Hooker Falls is in the DuPont State Forest near Asheville,NC. We also visited Lake Julian Park in Arden, NC. And because this is a food blog, I need to mention that we stuffed our faces at Culver’s before heading home. It’s all about the butter burger.

If you are in Western North Carolina and are interested in Carolyn Marie Photography you can find her…

• Website: http://carolynmariephoto.com/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CarolynMariePhoto/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/carolynmariephotography/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/CarolynM_Photo