wedding weekend: DIY (budget friendly) engagement photos

Cooking around here has been decidedly slow as of late. This week's dinners mostly consisted of a loaf of acme bread, some cheese, that homemade nutella, and large salads with fresh figs, pistachios, and shaved fennel. While pretty delicious, I hardly think it's worth chatting too much about.

So, as a means of checking back in, I thought share a little tip for anyone planning a wedding out there. Kev and I are getting married over what could be considered a holiday weekend (around the 4th of July next year), so we are working on getting out save-the-date cards out stat, before everyone starts to schedule up their summers. With our wedding photographer in NC, no budget to hire on another out here in Cali., and sadly no photographer friends we could beg to help us out, we grabbed my trusty DSLR and a tripod, headed to a nearby park with dozens of amazing spots, and swallowed our pride.

 We ended up with a few good shots, which I will share, many hilariously bad shots, which I won't, and some awkward "trying to re-create shots I've seen in wedding blogs" shots, which I also won't.

In the end, I was fairly happy with the few choices we walked away with. I think we're going to go with the first shot, even though I really wanted the shot with the tree to work out. So, if you're looking for a budget friendly way to get some good engagement shots, or heck Christmas Card shots, or something else, invest in a tripod (it doesn't have to be expensive), head to a local spot with good light and neat backdrops, and you've got yourself a budget friendly photo session... and as I'm quickly learning, any way to do something budget friendly, can be a really good thing, especially when planning a wedding.