Our Engagement Session
Having been a wedding photographer for over fifteen years, I’ve had many people tell me I must have all sorts of specific ideas about my own wedding. But no, I am always telling other people that I believe the best weddings are very personalized, and tailored to them as a couple. So of course I couldn’t have any specific ideas about what I wanted for a wedding until the I became a we. It wasn’t until after Alex and I got engaged in May that we began thinking more specifically about what we would want our wedding to be like. And actually, we took our time before we really started planning, so it was October before we really had a good idea of what we wanted to do. In the end, we decided to have a tiny ceremony in December and a still-small, but slightly larger wine country wedding in the spring. But first, we would squeeze in an engagement session, one month before the ceremony.
The next most popular question is, who does the photographer hire for her own wedding? But this was probably one of the easiest and most obvious parts of the whole wedding process: I hired two of my best friends. Cassie for our engagement session, and Courtney for our December ceremony.
Now, there are so many things I could say about Cassie, and she already wrote such a complete, loving, and incomparable blog post about our session that there’s no way I could do her justice with my post, but I will just say this: Cassie and I are incredibly different people, and yet, we could not be a better complement as friends. Cassie is family. And as someone who never adequately appreciated my friendships growing up, I am just so grateful that I’ve abandoned my illusions about going around the world as a lone wolf and come around to the realization that community is everything. I will be forever grateful, and a better human, because I get to be Cassie’s friend. These images are just one of many invaluable gifts she’s given me.
Finally, before I let you just admire Cassie’s beautiful photography, I will say just a brief word about my now-husband. Alex, you are a better person and partner in all of your specificity and imperfections than anything I could have ever presumed to dream up. Everyone says you are so easygoing and happy, but I think it’s actually just that you are incredibly adaptable and accepting of others. We’ve been very lucky and had a lot of fun adventures in the time we’ve known each other, but we have also had to be adaptable and resilient, and I’m just so thankful we’ve gotten to go through both the wonderful and wild times in the last few years, together.
Without further ado, some of my favorite images by Cassie Valente Photography from our engagement session atop Mount Tamalpais this past November.
Vendors:
Photographer: Cassie Valente Photography
Hair & Makeup: Beautiful One Makeup Artistry
Dress: Clair de Lune
Suit: Suitsupply
Engagement Ring: No. 3
Anna Wu is a wedding and portrait photographer based in San Francisco. She compulsively documents and blogs all of her daily adventures. Follow her on instagram and view more of her professional work at annawu.com.