Portfolio: Suzy + Sergio's Valentine's Day Engagement Session

Happy Valentine's Day! We're kicking off the week with a fabulous little engagement shoot Merci New York worked on with Sofia Negron Photography and NYC Faces at Sala One Nine. While Merci focused on styling the fashion, flowers and props to pack Suzy and Sergio's shoot with a ton of cute details, Sofia snapped from all corners of the room and Anni Bruno made sure Suzy remained powdered and glossed to perfection! The results: a cozy, romantic and whimsical Valentine's themed shoot that shares the couple's adorable love story. Take a peek {and see our stylist's notes beneath each vignette}!
Sala One Nine is a cozy, Spanish tapas-style restaurant nestled on 19th Street and 6th Avenue. Its romantic nooks and crannies make it a perfect Valentine's Day locale. For Suzy and Sergio's e-session, Sofia, Anni and I wanted to show the soft, sexiness of the location, but still make the shoot playful, so Merci stitched up some hand sewn felt hearts and affixed them to striped straws. The centerpiece is equally playful, the poppies stem out of a bright red lunchbox {a little nod to school-house valentines}.
Spanish tapas and Spanish love poems... Actually, our original fashion inspiration for Suzy's outfit stemmed from the above book, Love Poems by Pablo Neruda. I loved the gold and pink palette, and wanted to show Suzy a look that was fun, festive and chic for V-Day... I was very excited to find her perfectly matched skirt, to start! If you are still searching for a {totally accessible} Valentine's Day outfit, everything Suzy is wearing is currently in NYC stores. For a complete list of all where-to-buy fashion, see below.
Suzy and Sergio were so stinking cute! They love to laugh... and I mean LOVE to laugh. As Sofia shot through the afternoon, the couple would not stop giggling. They have such a playful chemistry... In fact, this worked well with Merci's props, such as the metallic "love" sign, which we intentionally crafted so it looked like a homemade valentine. At the bottom, we crafted adorable pink felt shoe clips and sewed gold sequins to them... It was the perfect touch to Suzy's adorable outfit.
We used simple in-season flowers to style the shoot. The white tulips were placed in assorted vessels and decorated with metallic doilies from Knot and Bow {one of our favorite crafting resources}. Suzy's chic little hair accessory continued the metallic theme, but added just a little pop of vintage charm, too.

Photography: Sofia Negron Photography
Fashion + Prop Styling: Jacqueline Weppner and Stephanie Cunningham at Merci New York
Make-Up: Anni Bruno of NYC Faces
Location: Sala One Nine

Where to buy: Cropped fur jacket, Club Monaco; white tank, American Apparel; pink and gold lurex skirt, Urban Outfitters; black patent pumps, BCBG; feather hair accessory, Urban Outfitters; shoe clips, made for Merci New York.

If you're looking for a styled engagement session to call your own, be sure to check back on Merci tomorrow... We may just have a very special V-Day gift for one lucky couple. xx!