Anita and Taber wanted to do a photo shoot to celebrate their engagement and have a very specific idea of what they wanted it to be. We love a good challenge and today we will tell you a bit of how it went.

Anita lives in London and Taber lives in Germany. But, they both come from the USA. Somehow they made this world feel like a little pea didn’t they?

After Taber popped the question Anita reached out to us with an invitation after she found us on Instagram: would we be able to go to London to do their engagement photoshoot?

It never ceases to amaze me how the universe plays the right cards at the right time because exactly one week before that we had bought a one way ticket to London. It sounds like destiny, right?

The idea was this: a very intimate, styled photoshoot, with lots of candelabras and real candles in a very rich and palace like room. Low light, whimsical, romantic.

If you know a bit of our work you can easily understand how this was a huge challenge for us! We are way more comfortable playing with natural light and outdoors. However, our set design bachelor and our 6 year experience in photography gave us enough confidence to be sure we could deliver what Anita and Taber had envisioned. And so the adventure began.

First and foremost, we started to inquiring some English vendors. Anita and Taber wanted us to take care of the planning and in order to present them a real quotation for the service we needed to first understand the British market.

The location was the most important part as it would determine all the rest. In the beginning we had 2 choices: to shoot in London or to shoot in Cambridge as Cambridge has a special meaning for Anita and Taber.

We picked some photo locations from Google and then did a video chat with the couple in order to decide which ones would be a potential good choice, narrowing down our options. We all came to realize that a London location would be better.

Unfortunately all the venues we contacted were taking weeks to reply to us so we requested Anita and Taber’s help. As Anita was in London already it would be easier for her to reach to the venues by phone if needed. And so she did and after 2 months back and forward with this, the venue was booked!

On our part we took care of the candelabra’s vendor and started to envision every little detail for the shoot. As we would be travelling with only a backpack each we needed to make sure we could bring everything we needed so we purchased 4 portable but potent lights, an extra tripod, some extra HDs to make sure we had not only one but several backups of the session.

By this time we started to do some tests with the lights and also searched from some extra vendors to help us create a whimsical ambiance in London.

Anita ans Taber have two very different skin tones and that’s something that worried them: that there would be not enough light to highlight her dark skin or too much light that would make Taber look too bright and red. This was something that we needed to have in mind throughout the entire planning and session as we wanted to honor each heritage and skin tone in a beautiful a smooth way.

Once we arrived at London we proceed with purchasing what was left. We bought some smoke in a can and we ended up in a set design warehouse where the people was so nice they let us borrow some jelly filters to play a bit with different light tones ans effects.

That was, in fact, an extra as we weren’t expect to find those and for that we must thank Sparks Theatrical Hire team for their help and kindness.

Once we had all the details planned it was time to shoot! And so we did.

It was stressful but fun. Anita and Taber had just arrived in London after a visit to the USA. Their flight back had been delayed and they came directly from the airport to the photo shoot.

We set up the candelabra’s and lighted up the candles. As it was turning too hot and smokey and the room had a smoke detector we decided to not light all the candles (50) for everyone’s safety.

While Anita got ready we took some photos of Taber alone. These would be a secret and Anita would only see them once the photos were delivered. A good surprise is always a good thing, right?

This photoshoot took a lot of planning, stress and nights without sleep but it was so worth it! We will never be able to thank Anita and Taber’s enough for the trust and opportunity. We couldn’t be happier and more grateful for this challenge that Anita and Taber’s proposed to us and that we have decided to accept.

A special thanks to all the vendors who helped us bring Anita and Taber’s dream alive!

Much more than a simple session this was a moment of celebration. Celebration of love, diversity, companionship. Celebration of the differences that unite us as individual beings, with different stories and origins, where love and kindness win and prevail ♡