engagement photo shoot

it only took a million years, but our engagement pictures our finally hot off the press! i am so pleased with how they turned out and i couldn't be happier with our photographer - julio costilla of helo photography. i knew of a lot of photographers, but i had no idea how to choose one until i was referred to julio by rebecca trois (a goddess who i adore and also the owner of our wedding venue). julio is the official photog of trois estate and he's worked with some of the best in the business. he's the consummate professional and very wise beyond his years, plus he made it so easy! i don't know about y'all, but every time i looked at engagement portraits of other couples, i would think to myself, "i wonder if it's really awkward to take photos like that? do they give you directions for that stuff?" our photographer was all about letting us do our own thing and blending himself into the background so we wouldn't even know he existed. it sounds strange, but i really didn't even know he was there...which i guess you can tell as many people have asked, "so did y'all just decide to make out the whole time?" i'm sorry! i know there are a lot of kissing pictures! oops ;)

anyway, i wanted the photos to be very representative of us, our lifestyle, and our personalities. i decided to do the shoot at floore's country store since i knew there would be some good backdrops and that's the place where theron and i met, plus we love it out there! i'm the kind of person that can see something in my head and i know what i want, so i told julio that i wanted pictures that told a story (rather than portraits of us just sitting there with my arms draped around theron's neck) and i wanted a pictorial look to the photos, something like a photo spread you might see in cowboys & indians or texas monthly. he really hit it out of the park and his use of color is just phenomenal! here's a few, but you can check out the rest on facebook:


love all the signage! i was going for an old gringo/double d ranch ad and i think we got it!


color turned out great on this one...


haha reminds me of an epic romance...


shannan d'aun sowder, would you marry me?!


i'm a huge dancer and have been all of my life. thank the lord, i found a guy who loves to dance too! this is our little homage to that...


i like this cute little spy shot!


fan of this one...well, because red is my fave color and my man looks hot!!! is he not a dead-ringer for the dude from country strong?


under the neons...


this shot was very spontaneous...we wanted to take a break so we just saw some chairs sitting there and had a seat, but i love the way this turned out!


i thought the antique finish on this one turned out cool, plus i love the general vibe of the photo. too bad my husband doesn't plan to run for governor of texas...i think this one would make an awesome campaign photo!

i hope to be back with more wedding updates soon, but this will have to do for now! i will get to blogging more frequently again i promise!