When Victoria and Arley reached out to us about their engagement session, we initially planned on downtown Plant City, Florida as the central location for the portraits. But the closer we got to the day of the photos, Victoria and Arley came up with a fun way to make this session memorable...by revisiting and capturing moments that mean a lot in their relationship! With that said, as soon as I captured the image above, everything turned interesting for the rest of the session! Here's how it went. FIRST: Arley, took off his pants, and revealed the speedos he was wearing underneath. Why speedos? Well, you see, when they first met at a wedding, he was also wearing speedos and that was part of their ice breaker conversation that got them interested in each other! THEN, we set on a short walk and sat at a bench in beautiful downtown Plant City. There Victoria and Arley enjoyed reading a book as they both like to do, with Arley's briefcase as a reminder of the love for reading and travel they like to do! Make sure to zoom into the book's title :) WE walked over to capture a photo in front of the Heart of Plant City mural. Plant City is the city they love and live. As a matter of fact, they both have deep roots here where they serve the community in many different ways. One of them is via social media, where Victoria manages the awesome Instagram account of igersplantcity. There she shares the love and beauty of Plant City. Make sure to follow! VISITING local Plant City bars is something they love to do, so we set on a quick trip to Strawberry Patch Lounge & Package. There was one of the first dates they had, where Victoria used to sing karaoke to show her singing skills...or try to anyway lol Regardless, her charm or singing worked since they are still together after these years! We recreated some of these scenes on our engagement photo session adventure. HAMBURGERS. They love burgers, specifically the ones from Checkers in Plant City. They love it so much that they actually made burgers a part of the engagement when they both asked each other for marriage. With that in mind, we did a quick stop to recreate that moment as they savored the delicious and juicy burger from Checkers! Notice the golden strawberry? On our last stop, we went to one of Plant City's jewels...Metals & Nature. Metals and Nature is owned by Arley's family and it's a beautiful garden and store adorned with statues, metal art, roaming peacocks, and much more. It's truly a dream to visit! There we took a few more photos, speedos and all, where we finished up with a coronation by an unique hat they got from visiting the country of Myanmar. They love to travel and visit places, so what a better way to capture this than the crowning using the hat made out of buffalo teeth and bones! How cool is that! For real, at this point, I had NO IDEA this session was going to finish up like this. EPIC!!!!!! BUT, just as we finished up, we saw the sunset and we just couldn't leave without a few more pics in the grassy field next to Metals & Nature - on the side of Highway 60! Yeah, these images look like we were on some rolling hills in the country, but nope - cars and trucks were honking at us lol. We then ended on the dirt road as we came to an end to an amazing, fun, exciting, interesting, and memorable engagement photo session! I'm more than humbled and thankful for the opportunity to capture these for Victoria & Arley, and I can't wait for their wedding day! THANK YOU!
If you are looking for an engagement or wedding photographer in Plant City, Lakeland, or all of Tampa Bay area, contact us! We want to be a part of your wedding! :) When Shayla contacted me she was concerned with selecting the right photographer for her wedding. With so many options now a days, I honestly feel her pain. But, my goal is to make it easy for my clients and we hit it off right away! Shayla is a planner and I LOVE that from my clients. If you have a vision, my goal is to make that vision a reality. Shayla sent me a Pinterest board with some samples of images she would like - with that in hand, and with my own spin of artistry, we went off to explore Plant City with her super cool fiancee Preston. The weather was perfect for this nature walk engagement session on a nature reserve in Plant City - an area where in talking to Shayla and Preston, was owned at some point by Preston's family! We are so glad that it's now a place where people can enjoy the beauty of Florida and not filled with houses or development. We walked to a creek for the first set of photos where we got some beautiful sun rays through the big oak trees. Then we headed to the tall grass for some final sunset moments. Overall we had a blast chatting about the wedding, life, and random stuff lol After Shayla and Preston received their gallery, they said: "OMG Jose saying they are amazing is an understatement!! We couldn’t be happier with them!!!!" Thank you Shayla and Preston for trusting me for your engagement and wedding photos. Can't wait for your big day at Cross Creek Ranch in Dover, Florida! Take a peek at some samples of the photos of the engagement session in Plant City below! If you are looking for a wedding or engagement photographer in Plant City, Lakeland, Dade City, or all of Tampa Bay area...contact us today! We would love to be your photographers! |
AuthorJose & Kristen Hoyos, Tampa Bay Area Wedding Photographer and Harpist for Weddings Archives
January 2024
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