Kara Schultz | Chicago, Lake Geneva, Milwaukee Suburbs Storyteller Wedding Photographer » Engagements

Falling: Kerby and Chris (and a little Norah on the side)

Kara — Thu, 24 Jun 2010 16:34:43 +0000

Kerby and Chris’s wedding is approaching FAST! Like as in next Friday…no worries though! We did sneak in an engagement session and went to the location that Chris proposed at. It was a scorcher but evening light is probably my favorite ever. Lots of fun flare and a bit different from my normal engagement sessions! We had a lot of fun and Norah wanted nothing to do with me once she learned about hunting in the fields. She also had a giant tick on her, but the rest of us were safe! Ok, enough talking, more pictures.

Kara
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Falling: Kelli and Brandon

Kara — Wed, 02 Jun 2010 01:41:53 +0000

Kelli and Brandon and Einstein too, came out to Geneva to do their engagement session! Kelli and Brandon are friends of Shannon and Matt, and well, you’ll see a lot of Brandon in their slideshow…haha…enough talking, time for pictures since Kelli’s been stalking my blog for a couple weeks now I shut up now

Kara
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Monica and Robin

Kara — Thu, 27 May 2010 21:53:34 +0000

Monica and Robin live up in Wisconsin, yes, I do weddings in Wisconsin! I actually don’t live to far from Lake Geneva so Milwaukee is about the same distance as it is for me to Chicago! Though, I do brag that it only takes me 75 minutes to get from my house to downtown Chicago which I think is pretty good timing but it’s all highway! Monica found me through Marisa who’s trash the dress I did WAY back in the day (hello 2008 and a completely different style!). I love shooting for people I’ve known before and continue to see them as things in their lives change!

Monica and Robin are having a very intimate wedding that I can’t wait for! These two were so sweet and worried about their pictures, hopefully I didn’t scare them too much since I took forever to blog them! This is another one of my favorites of engagement sessions and we’ll be back there for their wedding pictures, I really do love when things come full circle!

Kara
kara@karaschultz.com

Annette and Josh, part 2!

Kara — Thu, 27 May 2010 21:42:22 +0000

Annette and Josh wanted a beachy session for their 2nd set of engagement pictures. Their first set came from Cantigny and I did love it! Though Annette told me the instant we started that she didn’t want any kissy pictures, or maybe just a few, but only a few! I let them do their own thing and you can have some great engagement pictures without being all kissy. We headed up to the beach by Loyola University, it was private, not too inhabited so they never felt like a show was being put on like we sometimes get at North Ave beach! I’ve had these done for awhile now but just am now getting around to blogging them! I do love them all!

Kara
kara@karaschultz.com

Lisa and Chad

Kara — Tue, 11 May 2010 14:15:08 +0000

It’s a wonderful time to get engagement sessions done! Everything is blooming just beautifully and it’s green and just lovely. I love Spring for those reasons! I even sometimes love the rain as long as it’s not on a wedding day that is….

Lisa and Chad are getting married this month outdoors by the Baltic Mill Stage in Belvidere so we decided to go over there and do some engagement pictures as well! They even brought their adorable dog to the session and I just love when people do that! Dogs are so much fun!

Kara
kara@karaschultz.com

This may be a million pictures long

Kara — Tue, 11 May 2010 00:30:10 +0000

Last weekend I met up with Phil and Lissa for their engagement session before their quickly approaching July wedding! I usually only meet with the bride so it was nice to meet Phil for the first time! I think they were nervous about pictures but don’t let them fool you, they were naturals, always giggling and smiling and of course I had planted some trees in the perfect spots and told them to bloom! I haven’t been to Museum Campus since last Fall so I was happy to be shooting there! I just love it over there as we can get some different types of things and a gorgeous skyline! I usually am in Lincoln Park or Millennium Park so it was a nice change! My new 2nd shooter Jessica also tagged along so it was fun to do another shoot with her there!

Anyway, enough about my babble, your just here for the pictures aren’t you?

I told you it was a lot of pictures!! I just love engagement sessions, they’re a lot of fun, completely relaxed and very little time limits! I hope you enjoyed these!

Kara
kara@karaschultz.com

Jenean and Erich

Kara — Tue, 13 Apr 2010 14:53:41 +0000

It’s so nice to be able to shoot again and not have my finger fall off! Jenean and Erich are getting married next month (can you believe May is next month!?) at Holy Name in Chicago. They currently live out here in the suburbs and picked downtown West Dundee as a location and it was just wonderful! I always can find nice spots in downtown areas of places and I know that we had fun! I’m so excited to shoot their wedding next month because I know the photographs are just going to be amazing (if I do say so myself…I’m kidding, I’m not that full of myself! haha) but mainly because Jenean and Erich are fun people, who are willing to do whatever I want, and plus they’re just gorgeous together, seriously. Take a look!

Every engagement session, I look for pictures like this and I’m completely in love with this image. I vote for a 16×20.

We even found a white picket fence!

Kara
kara@karaschultz.com

Why engagement sessions are important

Kara — Thu, 25 Mar 2010 15:32:32 +0000

With everyone cutting back today on different wedding related expenses, I often get the “can we take out the engagement session”? I do not agree with this sentiment at all. I would rather you ask to take out the product credit and ask for a payment plan with your wedding album than ditching the engagement session and although that I don’t 100% fully agree with doing this, I’d much rather leave off the product credit than have your ditch your engagement session. Here’s some reasons why:

It’s a rehearsal – just like you rehearse for your wedding day, try on your dress and have it fitted, your engagement session is a rehearsal of how your photographer (whether it be me or someone else) photographs and how they pose or if they don’t pose at all. Then on the wedding day, you know how to pose and things go a bit smoother.
Another meeting - it’s great to get to know your photographer because they’re going to be the closest vendor to you on your wedding day, or even like a friend! We’re there when your getting ready to the end of the night when you may have had a few too many drinks! We’re there and we’re the ones who are capturing the moments of your day that you will have forever so it’s good to meet with us again!
Practice! – it’s good practice for posing so that you know what you like and what you don’t like. We’re our own worst critics and it will help you relax on the big day if you know what you looked like in your engagement pictures and what you did or didn’t like (I think you look gorgeous in all of them!). It will leave less stress when it comes to the picture time because you know what to expect and that’s important! It’s also a great time to book your makeup trial on the same day so you can get an idea of how your makeup will look in pictures on your wedding day too.
Acceptable pictures – I talk about this all the time, and I’m guilty of this too, but most of the pictures together are taken in places that you wouldn’t want to give to your grandma (see bar with bottles in background) and you may or may not have had too many drinks and it may show! So it’s always good to have these pictures so that you can use them in all sorts of your wedding planning (I’ll make another post…uses for your engagement pictures there’s lots!).
It’s never too late - ok, so now there’s only a month or a week until the wedding, you haven’t done your e-session, oh no! It’s never too late to meet and do a session, it’ll help you even if it’s just a week away. It takes an hour and we can do anything you want whether it’s just you both in your favorite coffee shop or anything else your imagination comes up with like making cookies or dinner, just about anything flies!
I don’t know what to do - don’t fret, your photographer has ideas, I have lots of them and will get you what you want. And plus, I always make them fun!
My fiance doesn’t want to - Read this list to him, it’s easy, painless and fun. It gets over the awkwardness of kissing in front of a camera and being close. It’s really good practice to understand how all of these wedding things work.
Ask questions! – During the engagement session we talk a lot about random things and about your wedding. You may have some questions that come up and you have my undivided attention to ask them and get immediate answers. You can bring up any possible issues, or ask my opinion on things you’re doing or planning on and if I think it’ll impact the pictures at all (and usually it’s a no, but I can give you examples of previous weddings that were similar). I also get to know you both and your personalities before the wedding and you get mine!
But… – “I can save money without it”, not with me you can’t! I don’t discount engagement sessions or remove them from packages, whether you use them or not, they’re there, so use them!
Why not? – seriously, why not? It’s an hour, I take care of the rest!

so those are some reasons why engagement sessions are a good idea and why you shouldn’t cut them out of your packages, instead look at other areas that you can reduce some cost or delay it (such as in albums…even though I don’t want to really advocate that…but hey, if somethings got to give…). Check out the what to wear post I did awhile back (I’ll be doing another) for ideas on how to dress for these! I’ll do another one too!

But if nothing else, don’t you want some images like this:

Kara
kara@karaschultz.com

2009 engagements for my 2010 couples!

Kara — Sat, 13 Feb 2010 00:00:06 +0000

And now I bring you a lovely assortment of the majority of my 2010 couples! I only have a few left to get in before their weddings and I’ve been in contact with them about it! (if you haven’t contacted me and talked about it, no sweat, just shoot me an email if you have a time/place you’re thinking of! I’m hoping there’s green and warmth in March!)

I am so excited for my 2010 season, I kicked it off with Nora and Tim‘s wedding and if that was a sign of how this was going to be, then I’m giddy!

There were sessions downtown (me and Millennium Park and the Cloud Gate are very good friends!)

And then I spent a whole lot of time at Cantigny! You know how much I love Cantigny, it’s a great location for engagement shoots or wedding day pictures if your schedule allows!

And then there were sessions all over the place!

Well that wraps up everything I shot in 2009! Next week, I’m featuring my advice segments such as constructing a timeline, accessories (loving this), first look information and more! So if you have any questions in general you would like me to answer just let me know and I’ll be sure to cover it!

Kara

kara@karaschultz.com

p.s. if you’re on facebook, become a fan! I keep you up to date on certain things happening and occasionally give stuff away!

Another best of! 2009 couples and their engagement sessions!

Kara — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 16:28:09 +0000

Ok, I’m breaking this into 2 posts, 2009 weddings and 2010 weddings and their engagement sessions! It was a fun year of engagement sessions and I really do love them! They’re pretty important to be able to relax in front of the camera when the big day comes and you get to know my crazy self a bit more!

Not a lot of talking is going to happen I don’t think! But I’ve been pretty much everywhere so we’re going to separate them that way! Here’s some on the lovely beaches of Chicago!

And followed by some in Millennium Park and Grant Park which is always a favorite for engagement photos!

And then some other areas downtown, whether it be on State Street by the Chicago Theatre or a random alleyway or up in Montrose Harbor!

Downtown is definitely not the only place to take some amazing engagement pictures! The suburbs have a ton of great locations! Cantigny being one of my favorites, Busse Woods is fun too! There’s lots of parks and areas that definitely work great for engagement shoots!

And I can’t forget about ones with furry friends

now isn’t it fun to see their engagement sessions now that you’ve seen all their weddings?! It’s like everything is completely full circle and I love seeing the engagement session then the weddings!

this officially wraps up 2009! Now onto my 2010 clients! 2009 was wonderful and I can’t wait for 2010!

Kara