This is a little different. Rather than me share my experience, I asked Kate and Russ to share the engagement session experience from her point of view.
A look at the engagement session for Kate & Russ in Ocean City from Dave McIntosh Photographics, Baltimore wedding photography and videography.
Kate – How we met: Russ, and I were acquaintances growing up. Russ was an altar server and sacristan and I was an altar server at the same time at St. Joseph’s Parish (same church we’re getting married at).
Our moms both knew each other and helped out with the Vacation Bible School program in the kitchen during the summer. Everyone at church knew who the Mellinger Family was. Russ’ mom and dad were very involved with the parish. I knew who Russ was, but never really spoke to him. He was always very quiet and reserved back then. Middle school, high school, college, and grad school went by for me and I decided to get back into singing and joined the St. Joseph’s Parish choir. Russ’ mom had passed away after a long battle with cancer in 2007. The whole parish knew, and we all felt a loss when she went. Russ went into the marines after his mom passed and I think that’s what helped him through his grief. One day Russ’ dad approached me and asked would I be interested in dating Russ. He said “he’s a big tough marine…just got back from Japan…he’s going to be in the inactive reserves so he’s home to stay…you remind me so much of how (his wife) Kathy was and I just want him to find someone like her.” I was thinking, Wow! Nothing like being put on the spot. I was dating someone else at the time, but it had not gotten serious yet. I laughed at his dad and said, “Sure!” Does he like country music?? His dad said yes and that Russ would be coming to our pastor’s retirement Mass after 40/+ years of being the church’s pastor since Russ also grew up with him. That next weekend, we met at our pastor’s retirement. I asked him if he still went by “Rusty” and he said, “You can call me Russ.” After that we started texting and talking on the phone and then he asked me out on our first date to dinner. I had dated several guys before Russ and I had some walls built up. Russ waited me out, and I can’t tell you how grateful I am for him doing that. I quickly realized he had a lot of the same values and morals that I tried to live by. Slowly I let him in and when I finally told him, “I love you,” his response was, “I’ve been in love with you.” My heart melted when he said that, and I realized that my heart was safe with him.
Russ – The proposal: I had been pondering how to propose to Kate for a while. I wanted to get it just right. I was contemplating doing it in Ocean City, since that is where Kate and I took our first vacation together. She loves the water. Kate brings up in casual conversation that she doesn’t want me to propose anywhere near the water because she has a terrible fear of dropping the ring and getting it lost. My older sister, who was stationed in Germany with her family, said that they were going to the 100th anniversary of the battle of Belleau Wood (in France) and that my father was going to go with them. She mentioned that if we could get plane tickets, she could show us around Paris for a few days before we went to the ceremonies. She knew I was going to propose and suggested that you can’t get much more romantic than the Eiffel tower. I agreed. We got to Paris and saw that at night the Eiffel Tower was beautifully lit. Every hour on the hour for 5 minutes, thousands of lights flicker on it to give the tower its beautiful sparkling effect. We got lucky and got to the top of the tower about halfway through the 5 minute window we were hoping for. So with a stomach full of butterflies and sparkling lights about to stop for another hour, I got down on one knee, and her response was obviously yes.
Kate – how we chose our location
We chose Ocean City, Maryland, because we both love the water and it is where we had our first vacation together. It was on this vacation we realized that we had a future together. We chose Berlin because we both love “small town USA”and the vibe of Berlin. We both are proud to call Maryland our home.
Kate – how we chose our wardrobe
The outfits for Berlin were chosen because the lace on Kate’s flowy top seemed to match the theme of the small historic town. Her top was unique in that it was almost a half up, half down dress. It looked like a sophisticated, casual outfit. The back flowed in the wind for a neat effect. Russ’s red, white, and blue plaid shirt matched with the many American flags and banners seen in front of many of the shops.
The outfits for the beach and Northside Park were chosen because again we were going for a sophisticated, casual look. Kate loves pearls and statement jewelry. When in doubt…add sparkle. The pearl necklace and her pearl jeweled shoes picked up the white in Russ’ shirt. We wanted to create the shabby-chic look. Kate’s flowy dress also created a lovely effect with the wind blowing. The dress was lavender…one of our wedding colors. Kate also loves long, flowy beach curls in her hair. Again we were going for delicate and elegant…or as I like to call it, “deligant”.
I decided to wear a floral dress with a flower in her hair for the Federal Hill Park pictures because it went with the theme of the park. The blue in Russ’ shirt picked up the small blue flowers in Kate’s dress. This was a more casual look, like we were going on a picnic and having Amber and Cassidy with us. Also, the flowers on Amber and Cassidy’s veil collars were blush pink and lavender as well as the flowers and top of Kate’s dress. Our wedding colors are blush pink and lavender.
Kate – what were you expecting?
Given that July 20th was going to be the hottest day on record this year in MD, I was extremely worried about my makeup melting and hair completely going flat. We were both worried about sweating through our outfits. Also worried about the heat affecting our expressions in the pics. We worried about both Dave’s (Dave McIntosh-photographer and Dave Schmitz-videographer) not being able to work well with the heat and humidity.
Another concern for us was finding places for the photos to be taken. Berlin wasn’t so much a problem. The big problem was finding areas of beach where it looked secluded, private, and had dunes. We went down the weekend before to find some spots. Our friends had their engagement photos taken on the beach at Assateague Island and they looked fabulous. Except they went during the fall months, when no one was on the beach. One obvious thing that didn’t even occur to us until we got down to OC was that in July, people are all over the beach! Finding a sunset area was a bit of a challenge as well. The only place we knew of was Fager’s Island, but we didn’t want the restaurant/bar/club in our background. Dave McIntosh scouted the area via google maps and found a good location with sand dunes and without a lot of people. One of our friends suggested Northside Park, which had a beautiful lagoon and view of the sunset on a dock.
As far as what we were expecting…we kind of went into the Berlin and OC session without expectations and just stayed in the moment, which, despite the heat, made it all the more enjoyable and fun.
Kate – thoughts on the session
The sessions were AMAZING!!! Dave McIntosh was gracious enough to offer doing a separate session at Federal Hill Park with the dogs so that my parents didn’t have drive 6 hours round trip in one day to just take a few photos with the dogs in Berlin. The pictures with Amber and Cassidy were absolutely adorable!!! Dave came prepared with a squeaky toy to get the girls’ attention with their ears perked up, showing off their good side for the photos. He even managed to get a picture of Kate’s ring on Cassidy’s nose! Another pleasant surprise Dave McIntosh gave us was some pictures with the inner harbor as our backdrop. Baltimore is going through some tough times lately, but it is still home for us and it’s where our roots are.
The Berlin and OC pictures were incredible!! Both Dave’s worked fabulously together. Dave McIntosh was great at making us feel at ease, given the environmental challenges we were facing. If the heat was bothering him, he didn’t show it…same for Dave Schmitz. Dave Schmitz’ silly personality only added to making us more comfortable. Russ used his funny side to make Kate laugh spontaneously and relax, which made for some great candid/natural candid pictures. Dave McIntosh was awesome, catching those little moments as they happened. He worked well with posing us and taking suggestions/requests from us for other poses. He also did an amazing job catching angles, using lighting, and using photoshop to make it look like we’re the only ones on the beach.
Kate – What would we do differently in hindsight?
Choose a day that was not blistering hot and humid and a time of year where the beach wouldn’t be as crowded.
