I have a question. It involves “Engagement Photos”.
Here in Utah, it’s customary to send a photo with your wedding invitation. Is that a Utah thing or an everywhere thing? Also, said photos are typically referred to as “Engagement Photos”. But I was thinking about it, and we got engaged way back before Thanksgiving. So these are really more “We’ve been engaged for a while but haven’t gotten around to taking cute pictures yet, but we needed to take some soon so we can send them with our invitations, which may or may not be a weird Utah custom” photos.
Whatever they are called, I like them. I really really do.
Especially since most of our couply photos are taken by one of us with our arm extended. These are better.
My enormously talented friend Ingrid took them. I applaud her immensely for making two awkward people look this good. (Damn we look good!) Poor girl had to shoot a LOT of photos to get these cute ones, but I’m so glad she did. If it were me I may have thrown in the towel after about 40 of these:
But she soldiered on, and managed to get some of these too:
Ings, I’m pretty sure you don’t read my blog that much. But if you read this, this is my public proclamation of gratitude to you for spending over half of your day with us. We had a rockin’ good time, minus the guy rear-ending Stan in the parking lot and waiting around for the cop to show up. Thanks for waiting around with us. And thanks for the photos. Thank you thank you thank you.
And to the incredibly talented Candice, thank you so much for helping me to not look like an eight-grader and doing my hair and makeup!
If you’d like to see more, here’s the link to the album on the good ol’ Spacebook:
You can even be my friend if you want. Then you can see more of what a weirdo I am.
April 6, 2011 at 8:16 am
We did not send a picture with our wedding invitations.
I’ve seen wedding invites where a picture may be part of it, like in the background, but not separate, just hanging out in the envelope.
With our thank you cards, we sent a wallet size weddng picture of us.
April 6, 2011 at 8:43 am
That first photo is really, really cute! š I think “engagement photos” are really fun to have later on, since like you said most of the time photos you take together don’t look that great.
I did a photo with the invitation, but obviously I’m from Utah and a lot of the things we did with our wedding were “weird Utah things.” I still think it’s a nice tradition, especially for the more distant relatives or family friends who maybe haven’t met your SO yet. It’s like they get to see a sneak peak of who you’re marrying. At the same time, when I get those photos from other people I always feel guilty throwing them away. But it’s not like I’m going to stick them in a frame or something.
April 6, 2011 at 9:01 am
My favorite is the last one. And I covet the top you’re wearing!
I plan on eloping if I ever decide to get married. I might send out a photo from the day in the “sorry we didn’t invite you” announcements. š
April 6, 2011 at 9:48 am
Haha that’s a good idea
April 6, 2011 at 9:53 am
Ohhhhoohhh me likey the top picture. I love candid shots like that. I say you should definitely inlclude a snapshot of the happy couple. It’s not something I have seen done in Minnesota much. I have just seen one. You guys are totally adorbs. Maybe an 8×10 for each guest. And you can autograph it. Ok. Maybe too much?
April 6, 2011 at 10:29 am
I don’t usually see photos in the invitation here in MN. Save the dates usually have engagement pictures, though. For the record, we got engagement pictures taken about 2 months before the wedding! We got engaged in the fall and by the time we thought of pictures it was practically snowing. We thought we’d skip engagement pictures all together but we impulsively decided to do it at the last minute.
April 6, 2011 at 10:43 am
You two are adorable! I love it!
April 6, 2011 at 10:51 am
hahaha, so on your facebook album, i was going to write “i normally hate engagement photos, but you two did a lovely job” so i’m glad you’re asking people about it here. i think for the most part, Utah engagements look SO contrived and insane they are usually terrible. i don’t understand how staring at the ground, facing away from each other, or having one of you blurred out shows that you are in love.
Your pictures are awesome. You both look so happy and normal, and you aren’t holding like, a bouquet of balloons or broken pieces of wood or leaning on a spray painted wall in an alley.
April 6, 2011 at 12:29 pm
this is hilarious.
yes, you two look lovely!
April 6, 2011 at 12:26 pm
Okay, first of all, you two really do look beautiful.
Second of all, why do you care whether or not it is a Utah custom to send a photo of the two of you with your wedding invitation? If you want to include it, then do. If you think it’s cheese-filled and cliche, then don’t. I do think, however, that not sending one just because you think it is a Utah cliche is just as bad as sending one because you want to fit in with the Utah fads.
You rebel you.
April 6, 2011 at 12:46 pm
When a couple is as cute as you are…send the photo! It is quite common in Arizona too. I always like having a photo.
April 6, 2011 at 12:48 pm
We’re not going to include any pictures with our invitations… but I don’t see any problem with it. From what I can remember, I think I’ve only gotten pictures with thank you cards. These would also work really well with holiday cards!
April 6, 2011 at 1:25 pm
I love reading ya’ll’s responses! Haha keep em coming.
Rachel- I didn’t so much mean to ask “Should we send a photo”… I was really just curious because for the longest time I just thought everyone did it, but then I started hearing people being like “wtf??”. So I just wanted to harness the beauty of the www to get lots of different perspectives on the practice of sending a photo. Don’t worry, we’ll do what we want. š
I usually appreciate getting a photo. However, I have had to learn to not feel bad when I throw it away. I mean, I certainly don’t expect people to keep a photo of us forever. Except my mom. If my mom threw it away, I might be a little sad. Haha.
April 6, 2011 at 2:09 pm
love you manda. please send one to me!
April 6, 2011 at 3:02 pm
We sent a photo with our Save the Dates, but nothing with the invites. And a wasn’t even a purposely taken “engagement” photo, just an ok-ish one snapped at Robert’s dad’s birthday.
April 6, 2011 at 3:14 pm
I hadn’t intended to include pictures with our invites – but we got an engagement shoot free with our wedding photographer’s package, so we designed one into the invitation. Most invites I’ve received (Colorado/Nebraska) have included a picture of the couple. I like getting the pictures, especially if I haven’t seen the couple in a while or if I only know one of the two people. I quite prefer the “this is just a great picture of us being us” (like yours – especially the first one, so cute!) to the super stylized or super posed pictures I sometimes see.
April 6, 2011 at 7:45 pm
I love these pics! So natural looking, and not “forced.” We didn’t send a separate photo of us with our wedding invites, but I did use one of our engagement pics as part of the invites I made. Seems like that’s a pretty common way to personalize the invites. But if you have all these great photos, why not share them with everyone? š And then, like you said, they can choose to do whatever they want with it.
April 6, 2011 at 7:45 pm
Oh yeah, and I meant to say that your hair looks super-cute!
April 7, 2011 at 8:24 am
You guys are so cute together! I’ve never heard of including a photo with a wedding invitation, but I think it’s a neat idea. (I usually only see photos with save the dates.)
April 8, 2011 at 8:56 am
You two are too cute. I think it must not be the same custom in good on Illinois, because I’ve never gotten a photo with a wedding invite. But I think it’s a great custom.
April 8, 2011 at 11:27 am
SUPER cute! š
July 7, 2011 at 9:32 am
[…] did for a contest a while back and gave it a second thought. By the way, Ingrid is the one who did our engagement photos gratis- is this a talented family or what? So we called her up and since she’s a recent grad […]
August 17, 2011 at 9:23 am
[…] Wedding Wednesday- some awful cute photos of us ŠĀ« Hip House Girl Apr 6, 2011 … Wedding Wednesday- some awful cute photos of us. Posted by Hip House Girl under Wedding … […]
May 20, 2013 at 3:06 pm
My potting shed gets even much more valuable during our prolonged winters.
Submit pics of your potting location! I’d love to see.