First thing on my list once we decided we were going Venice, Italy was to find a photographer so we could have our own couple’s portraits done. I had seen lots of others couples had done a session in Venice and I just love the idea of us doing a couples session too. The next step was to find a photographer who was close to my style and that didn’t charge a ton of money. Since we were on a pretty tight budget we really couldn’t afford to splurge on a photographer I liked in one of my first searches but after looking I figured if we could keep it under €400 for an hour session we should be fine finding a good photographer. Well, that became harder than I planned on I while I was looking for someone similar to my style photography since that is what I like (DUH)! After much look at pricing, I ended up going with Flytographer which is a company that specializes in vacation portraits & session (including proposals) and have 4-5 photographers per city that are all different styles which made it easier looking for a photographer. I ended up deciding on Marta and I am so happy I did. Flytographer made it easy once they confirmed Marta was available for our date we talked details. From what I had known of Venice it was better to do our session in the early morning so it wasn’t as busy and we could have Piazza San Marco to ourselves hopeful and of course, the lighting would be great that early also.

So let’s backup to my planning process a couple months before our trip; before I even knew what I was going to be wearing for our session I knew I had to get some help in the hair & makeup department. Normally for my own clients, I preach that it’s so important to get your hair and makeup done for their engagement photo shoots, well this wasn’t going to be the case for ours. One was budget and two trying to find someone who was willing to get up at 4 am to help me do hair and makeup wasn’t going to be an option. So I knew I needed to get a makeup lessons & figure out how I could do my hair. First I reached out to Korrine of Korrine C. Makeup Artist & Esthetician she did my hair & makeup back in December for a headshot swap I did. She told me how much it would be and I brought over all my makeup and she told me what I needed and how to apply the makeup so that it would be heavy enough for camera & gave me some tips on eye makeup since that’s one of my weakness. Next, I had to figure out how to do my hair, I have curly hair but unless I curl it, it’s somewhat crazy and frizzy and just a huge mess. So I had decided to try Curling Wand instead of a normal curling iron. Well after a little practice I figure it out and I really liked how my hair looked using the curling wand. Makeup lesson done, hair style done….

Next step was figuring out what we were going to wear. At first, I figured I would just wear pants (jeans my norm) and a cute shirt my standard go-to outfit but then I realized I really wanted to wear a dress and not just a normal dress but a flowy dress. This became a huge pain in the butt at first. I really wanted to wear a long flowy dress since it was still early March when we would be in Venice I figured it wasn’t going to be the warmest so finding a non-backless, non-sleeveless long flowy dress that didn’t look frumpy was a challenge. I looked at Free People, Lulu’s, Anthropology and Nordstroms, my issue was I didn’t want to spend over $100 for a dress I couldn’t justify spending so much one one dress then I was reminded of Modcloth and it was such a great suggestion.  I found 2 dresses that I felt were possible winners for what I envisioned myself wearing for Venice couples session. Once the dresses came I ended up keeping both but chose this dress as the one I would wear for our shoot. Next, I had to figure out what Pat was going to wear. My husband job isn’t one where he wears suits and ties and the last time he wore a suit was on our wedding day. But once I had figured out my dress his normal go to for photos just wasn’t going to work either. So I asked him if he would be up for buying a suit jacket since it’s something he could always use down the road for weddings or important events to have something nicer than just a polo or sweater. Sure enough, he was on board so off to Burlington Coat Factory to search for a reasonably priced suit jacket. After finally finding one under $100 he was set and we were ready for our Venice shoot.

Now that everything was set all I could do was stock the weather and hope that we didn’t have rain! This was probably the most stressful part of planning because we really didn’t have an option for another day based on our travel schedule. Sure we had the next morning if we had rain but I didn’t know if Marta was available and so all I could do was hope that we wouldn’t have rain and if we were lucky maybe some sun. Well as the day got closer it was looking it became pretty promising that we wouldn’t have rain and it might actually be somewhat of a great day just a little cold. The days going up to the session I showed Pat some of my poses that I do with my own couples so that we could be prepared to be in front of the camera. I knew Marta spoke English but I wasn’t sure how much direction we would get so I wanted to make sure we did our part since I could give us the best chance for having great photos (SERIOUSLY we straight up practiced in our kitchen with some of my standard poses). I also told Pat that he should put one of his hands in is pocket if it’s not around my waist or holding my hands this would make him look more relaxed and natural in front of the camera. I think giving Pat some pointers on posing really helped our session turn out amazing!!!!

FLASH FORWARD TO… The morning of our session I woke up at 4:30 am because we were meeting Marta little bit before 7 and I had to do my hair and makeup and I had done a few practice run throughs so I knew that if I allowed about 2 hours I should be fine. I cut it close but we were down in Piazza San Marco on time and ready to go at our start time. It ended up being a beautiful clear sunny morning Marta even said we were so lucky because a lot of times they have hazy skies in the morning or even fog and it was pretty chilly and at first, I was fine but by the end of our session I was really cold and done. We did the majority of our couples session around and in Piazza San Marco, the Bridge of Sighs and Doge’s Palace. Then we headed over to the Rialto Bridge and then Grand Canel area and then over where the fish market normal is but on Monday there is no fish market so we had that area which was beautiful to ourselves. It was funny Marta kept wanting to take more photos in more locations I had a feeling she was enjoying herself & getting some good stuff since our session went over our hour. But in the end I was so cold I was ready to head back to the hotel to change & get a cappicino to warm up.

Both Pat and I are so pleased with our photos and I have gotten so many compliments on them. It was such a great thing for us to do and we will cherish these photos forever just like our wedding photos this was such a once in a lifetime trip for us right now so documenting Venice with this couples session was so important to both of us. A huge thank you to Flytographer and Marta for not only giving us such beautiful photos but for getting them back to us even before we were home from our trip!

This is our favorite photo from the entire session. I love it because it’s black and white and just a genuine moment of us walking and being together!

Photographer: Marta with Flytographer
Location: Venice, Italy (Piazza San Marco mainly)
My Dress: ModCloth
Pat’s Suit Coat: Tommy Hilfiger
Hair & Makeup: DIY