Alex + Hannah | Vintage Du Quoin, IL Engagement

From the moment I met Alex and Hannah, I knew I was in for something different. Something unique and special. A couple who was very much excited about their wedding and engagement pictures. They planned on having a vintage theme wedding as well as a vintage style shoot for their engagement pictures. Alex planned out pretty much the whole session, which surprised me, because grooms usually just show up to things like this. The brides are always coming up with the ideas and more enthusiastic about getting their pictures done. Alex brought along tons of props. When they opened up the back of Hannah’s Prius it was loaded full of old suitcases, stereo, quilts, flowers, wine and wood boards with a heart. If it wouldn’t have looked silly I would have done some cartwheels in excitement over what was about to happen.

We started off at the Du Quoin Fairgounds. We made a picnic scene first and it was seriously adorable. I think the suitcases were my favorite part of the whole scene. I wanted to take them home so bad LOL. After spending a little while at the Fairgrounds, we headed back to Hannah’s house to recreate a photo that her grandparents took on her front porch many years ago. Very cool idea I must say. It turned out great too. After that, we went up down to get an old fashioned bike. If the scene in The Notebook just ran through your head then you’re about to see something very similiar. Although I didn’t have Hannah sitting on the handlebars as Alex rode down the road (that would have been hard to shoot) the scene still turned out amazing.

We changed clothes, again, and we made our way off to Energy, IL to take pictures with one of 11 1942 Chevy Coupes on record. That’s right, there are only 11 of these cars around and we took pictures with one of them! This part of the session was probably my favorite. It’s not every day you do a vintage themed photo shoot and it’s definitely not every day that you get to take pictures in front of a very rare car. The nice man who let us borrow it for a few minutes was so sweet and he kept saying that their pictures were going to be “one of a kind” and I couldn’t have agreed with him more.

Off to one last location. Yes, I know, this 5-hour engagement session was about to end but we had one last place to go. Railroad tracks! And another clothing change for Alex. This time he wore his grandfather’s army shirt. You can’t get any more vintage than that! Plus it was cool to wear something of his father’s. Hannah had worn a necklace of her grandmother’s too, so it was a very special day with all the little details.

I’ve rambled so much about this session but it required it. I hope you all enjoy looking through these pictures because I had an absolute blast taking them. Alex and Hannah, thank you so much for being so sweet and coming up with so many great ideas. You are truly a special couple and I cannot wait till June to take your wedding pictures.