After a bit of discussion, we ended up going with an extended engagement session, shooting for about 5 hours, stopping to grab a light breakfast and a light lunch along the way.

In the morning we went to the University of the Incarnate Word campus, Clint’s alma mater, where we got to hang out with a couple of adorable Bijou Francais’ (while cracking up with Anchorman references… because they literally named Baxter after the poor little dog whom the bad man punted – HA!)

Clint was taking us around his old stomping grounds when we spotted a perfectly nice log for sitting and cuddling. And it was even super-comfortable. No pokey bits or anything… yeah… Madeline + Baxter gave it their seal of approval!

One of Vilma’s good friends was nice enough to swing by to pick up Madeleine + Baxter, and we headed to the Pearl Brewery to continue. But first, breakfast! We stopped in at the CIA Bakery Café, and considering that the ‘CIA’ stands for Culinary Institute of America… yeah, it was delicious. Vilma + Clint had the chocolate croissants, and they looked pretty content with their decision.

Gotta love the Big Ass Fans.

Who doesn’t like a little R&R in a parking garage?

^^ If that isn’t a Coca Cola ad, I don’t know what is.

Caroline’s ring is actually her grandmother’s wedding ring (married 53 years!) – beautiful! Shaun’s ring is by David Yurman.

Make-up and hair by Hayley Groll at Stella Blue Boutique & Salon.

Related Posts:
Caroline + Shaun’s Ranch Engagement

I somehow managed to snap a shot of Secret Weapon X (that would be MT) – isn’t she great at styling the details?! So great to have her getting that ready while I’m anticipating moments – teamwork!

Binkan ordered beautiful knives from William Henry Studio for all his lucky groomsmen and had them custom engraved.

Fast forward to a few weeks before our scheduled engagement session, we get a call from Binkan asking if they could go ahead and swap the engagement out in favor of rehearsal coverage. Now this was surprising, because I knew how excited they were so something specific had to be worrying them. When asked why, the reason given was ‘We’ve thought a lot about this lately, and we really don’t want to just go to some location and dress up and pose – it seems weird, just going somewhere for the sake of pretty pictures…’ Ironically enough, MT and I had been talking for months about doing a more meaningful type of engagement session, something that feels more ‘real’ for the exact same reason expressed by Binkan.

So we presented an alternative. ‘Tell you what… Let’s do the shoot in your house. No posing. No stressful wardrobe decisions. We’ll capture you doing what you normally do as you work from home, hang out, play with your dog… Then we’ll go grab lunch together. Absolute worst case scenario, you don’t have to do anything with the photos and we get to hang out and eat lunch together.’

They LOVED the idea. I mean they raved about it to friends and family… and this was before they even saw the results. There was literally no posing and virtually no direction given whatsoever for this shoot (they’re really that lovey-dovey, believe me).

This is one of the sweetest couples I’ve had the pleasure to work with, and I consider myself lucky to call them my friends. Thank you Ashlee & Binkan for helping to push us outside of the norm and for trusting us to fulfill our vision. Easily one of my favorite sessions to date.

P.S. This is their first home – and it is stylin’! Tip from Binkan: GILT app for iPad.