Lifestyle Minneapolis Engagement Photographer: Matt & Aybike

The beautiful thing about engagement sessions is that there are no expectations or traditions to uphold. These sessions are completely focused on you and your partner, capturing and celebrating this moment in your lives. I love being a Minneapolis engagement photographer because each session is perfectly unique and each couple brings in their own vibe and personality. Matt and Aybike are getting married in just a couple weeks! As we were planning their engagement portraits, it was really important to them to avoid cheesy or cutesy pictures that felt overposed or stiff. They wanted engagement pictures that felt authentic and natural and relaxed and true to who they are. Wanting to capture a typical weekend afternoon, they asked me to come into their home and photograph them in their kitchen, talking and cooking and sipping tea together. What a beautiful idea!! I was elated and psyched, and it turned out to be an amazing session.

This couple lives in a lovely, light-filled apartment here in Minneapolis. Their home is full of music and art - they have this lovely mix of modern and old-world decor, with lots of rich colors and textures. It felt perfect to be able to capture them in their kitchen (their favorite room!) cooking and laughing, and making Turkish tea (Aybike is from Turkey, and she makes this amazing tea that they serve in beautiful little glasses). We ended their session by popping outside and getting some pictures of them wandering through their neighborhood.

In the end, when I look through these images I feel like I've stepped into a time capsule of their life for an afternoon... and this is exactly what I feel engagement portraits should capture! Love and personality come alive through candid afternoons of cooking, smiling over steaming cups of tea, cozy moments on the couch, and adventures through favorite neighborhood sidewalks.