Betsy Wall Photography

Time for a very belated post!  Jing and Chris invited me into their home on valentines day to take some pictures of them and their two beautiful daughters, Jasmine and Emma. Here’s the cute little Emma….

.. Jasmine and Dad.

Ice cream is one of my favorite things in the world.  I wish I had a picture like this with my mom!!

The beautiful family!!

It was lovely to meet you all.  Thank you so much!!!

This Saturday was a FUN non-engagement session - involving a Bulldog, a puppy, drinks, beautiful people, dog poo, and lots of laughing.  Why non-engagement you ask?  Because these two are MARRIED!  Even though I’ll be shooting their wedding on April 30th, these two are officially husband and wife.  Kory is in the service, and has a great opportunity to serve our country in Arizona this summer….  and to make the process/paperwork go smoothly, these two were married in a courthouse this February.  My funny story is that this was an unexpected (but good) thing…  I received an email saying “hey- I see that Kate and Kory were married this weekend.  Weren’t you the one photographing their wedding?”  Back when I started shooting weddings, I started to have photographer nightmares.  Like I missed a wedding.. or mixed up dates (even though I have my wedding dates recorded in 5 different places and I check and triple-check them weekly!)  My heart jumped and I raced to check my calendar, my emails, the paperwork.  I wasn’t losing my mind - we were set for April 30th!  I got in touch with Kate and confirmed - yep, they are married, but they are still on for the celebration in April!

So now I present, my first non-engagement-so-happy-for-you-married-awesome-people photos!  When I meet with people, I always tell them how fun engagement sessions are… it’s like hanging out, only somehow pictures happen in the process.  Below is proof!  Kate and Kory like to hang out at The Bulldog in downtown St. Paul, so we started our session over a couple of drinks and lots of good conversation!

After a few drinks we headed to Mears park for some pictures.  It’s PERFECT for photo sessions!!

Time out!  We hafta stop and play with the puppy….

But ok people… if you bring your dogs to a public park, please pick up the dog poo!  While kneeling on the ground to get a picture of Kate’s beautiful ring, I overheard Kory saying something about poop.  I was so into my photographing that I didn’t think any of it.  But when I stood up - yep!  Dog poo.  LOTS of it down my leg.  We laughed and used it as a photo op.  I gave my camera to Kory so we could record the moment.  But hey- thanks to my new Kelly Moore bag, I had enough room to store Kleenex’s in my lens bag.  So I was able to clean up a little and move on! :)

And back to the photo shoot! :)   My word these two have great style.  I LOVE Kate’s shoes and outfit!

We found this cool commons area to warm up in.  I like the 60’s vibe in this photo.

And now for my favorite set pictures from the session.  I know these are similar and I couldn’t decide which ones to post… but then I decided that ‘hey- it’s my blog so I can post similar pictures if I want!’  I think this shot is a fashion type shot….

… and this one is a more ‘Betsy’ moment-driven photograph.

Kate.  You are freaking gorgeous!

One of my favorites from the day!!

We also got to ride escalators.  Down…

…. and back up!  See?  Photo sessions so much fun!!

Who doesn’t love twinkle lights?

These two?  Clearly in love.  Perfect for each other.  Can’t you tell?

Congratulations Kate and Kory-  I can’t wait to celebrate your marriage in April!

Last Saturday I met Kari and Rick in downtown St. Paul for an engagement session.  They are getting married in Montana but live here, so I had the honor of doing their engagement session.  We met at the St. Paul Union Depot for a few pictures - a gorgeous building I hadn’t been to before!

I love this picture of Rick - a very nice natural expression…

Before the engagement session I was throwing ideas past Kari and Rick for locations.  I mentioned coffee shops or restaurants - but what’s most important to me is that wherever we shoot, the place has meaning for each couple.  Kari said in general they just like being together… and while some people have coffee shops, they like Snoopy- so we incorporated the statues into our session.

It was a cold morning, but quite pretty.  The morning was kind of misty - and the frost and snow on the trees sparkled!

The Landmark center was kind enough to let us in for some pictures (a Scottish festival was going on - kind of fun to see!)

Thank you so much Kari and Rick for a great session!  Congratulations on the engagement  - I’m excited to see wedding pictures! :)