Mexican Food Store Engagement Shoot

September 27th, 2023

Cori came to me sometime in September asking me to shoot their engagement photos that involved lots of storytelling & something I’ve been really getting into; film! This was one of the first opportunities I’ve had to shoot an engagement photo shoot partially on film at La Guanajuato, a Mexican food store in Delavan, Wisconsin. From the moment I met Cori + Jocsan on a little Zoom call, I knew this was going to be one of my favorites of the year.

This photo shoot meant so much to me in so many ways; firstly meeting a couple who trusted me entirely (let alone on FILM) to shoot something so important and memorable truly meant so much to me. Storytelling is also something I’m so huge on when it comes to my photography and when they came to me with their idea, I internally screamed for a few days because of how excited I was. Instantly clicking with people is sometimes rare to come by, but I felt so at home hanging out with Cori + Jocsan; they radiate so much love & warm energy and you can really see it come through in their photos!

Getting to go to a spot that meant so much to C + J’s culture and relationship was one of the best feelings & I can’t wait for you to take a peek at this photo set -

I wanted to get the inside scoop about C+J’s relationship just so you could gush about their love as much as I did, so I asked Cori a few quick Q’s about her + Jocsan’s relationship! —

Cori - “I hate driving in big cities and when I committed to going to a concert in Chicago with my cousins and a family friend I knew I had to hitch a ride before the (scary) traffic. Soooo I drove from Door County to Lake Geneva area to my family friends house and he said we were just waiting for his friend. When his friend arrived he introduced himself “Hi I’m Jocsan” - little did I know that I was shaking hands with the love of my life. I thought he was very polite and easy to talk to. He asked me questions on the drive down to Chicago and I felt he was so easy to talk to. I now know he thought I was very down to earth & outgoing and thought I was intelligent from what I was talking about (possibly school ? idk!!). We got to the concert and Jocsan and I found ourselves enjoying the concert and having fun meeting other people there. We added each other on social media and then, we never spoke again!

“It wasn’t until 2019 that I posted an Instagram story commemorating my last day in the restaurant business - I saw that Jocsan had replied to my story with a sincere message about his experience in the restaurant business. He stood out because I felt like I could actually talk to him about real things and the next day my dad & I moved my life to STL to start my masters program. During the 9 hour drive I was texting Jocsan and telling my dad that I may have met someone really cool. Once I moved (and Jocsan had relocated to Denver) we kept texting and told each other that due to the distance this can’t be a thing.

We couldn’t stop talking & after 3 months of facetimes + texting, he flew to STL and we made it official! One year of long distance later he moved by me and we’ve been living life side by side ever since ♡”

One of my favorite parts about including film into photo shoots, is I always like to give the couple my point and shoot camera and have them take photos of each other! This is such a sweet way to see how each person sees the other & just fills my heart when I get them developed :’)

“The photo shoot meant a lot - to get the opportunity to showcase such a monumental moment for us and also combine our culture to that. It was such a genuine experience with Kelsie. I appreciated the opportunity to see ourselves and a piece of our story through her photos - made it easy to be ourselves” - Jocsan

“We are just not conventional people - we both became more of ourselves when we got together. When we got engaged we thought about this shoot and could not think of a setting that was US (field of flowers? no, city? no. etc).

We were driving and I said omg it would be so cool to be surrounded by Mexican fruits and vegetables and architecture and colors (we are both first gen Mexican American) and I dismissed the idea because Mexican markets are in LA not in Wisconsin. Then Jocsan said “What about the Mexican market in my hometown?” BOOM! It was perfect. Our culture, his childhood, food, and warmth. Putting it all together like that was such a win and our pictures came out perfect.” - Cori

If you made it this far, thank you so much for taking the time to look through + hear about Cori and Jocsan’s love story. This shoot truly meant so much to me and was a huge turning point in finding my love for film photography once again ◡̈