• Engagement Ideas & Rings

Sweethearts at an early age, Jessica and Andrew, were celebrating their ten year anniversary in Paris when Andrew got down on one knee. Can you imagine anything more romantic! Well, their engagement session in the hills of Yorkshire is pretty steamy and heartfelt. Including an accidental dip in the river and Jessica's childhood dog Gizmo; this photo shoot is sure to melt your heart.
Interested in seeing more of Jessica and Andrews English engagement session ideas? Be sure to peruse the full gallery here to see all close moments designed by Soirée de Luxe and captured by Belle and Beau. Keep reading to hear more from Jessica about what inspired the shoot and how planning for the big day is going.

From the Bride-to-be:Andrew and I have been together for over ten years now, we were 'childhood sweethearts' and met working in a supermarket in Wakefield, Yorkshire. We moved to London together eight years ago. We recently celebrated our 10 year anniversary in Paris where, to my surprise Andrew 'finally' popped the question.

We wanted our engagement shoot to be very heartfelt, but lots of fun. There was one moment when we were in the water and Andrew was holding me. The water was freezing, the rocks were slippery, and we both ended up falling in straight after the picture was taken - that's the reason why there's just one picture of us in those particular outfits as we got completely soaked!

Our engagement shoot took place in the very picturesque Blake Dean in Hebden Bridge, Yorkshire. We wanted the shoot to be very reminiscent of the Yorkshire countryside, but with some Parisian elements, inspired by our engagement weekend. It was really important to me that my childhood dog Gizmo was part of this photo shoot as he is such a big part of our lives and he's now almost 13 years old, but doesn't look it - or act it.

We ensured there were lots of special details throughout the shoot, including a framed picture of the bridge 'Pont Neuf' where Andrew proposed in Paris, a calendar highlighting the date of our wedding, our favourite French snacks and of course lots of close-ups of the ring.

1. What inspired the feel of your engagement session?

We are both originally from Yorkshire, but now live far away from a lot of our friends and family in London, so we wanted to take the engagement session back to our roots. After all, Yorkshire is the place we fell in love! We wanted the engagement shoot to be a celebration of our relationship from the past ten years. Blake Dean in Hebden Bridge was the perfect place to have fun with different "scenes", there was everything we could have wanted; rolling hills, a stream with a bridge and a good little spot for us to have our styled picnic and we just improvised from there and made sure we had lots of fun throughout. We wanted everything to be really natural, so when you see smiley pictures, you know they are genuine smiles. And not forgetting our weekend in Paris where we got engaged, we of course made sure there was enough room for some Parisian elements too!

2. What was your favorite thing from the shoot?

To be honest the whole day was absolutely wonderful. Aside from us being incredibly lucky with the weather, it was so nice and tranquil - there weren't too many tourists wandering around to get in the way of our pictures. My favourite part of the day was when Andrew and I were walking with Gizmo. Little Gizmo was so well behaved on the shoot, he pretty much did everything we could have wanted him to do. There was a moment when we were all sitting on the grass where I felt really emotional. It was towards the end of the day and I just thought to myself how nice it was that Gizmo was part of our engagement shoot. He's 13 now and I realize he's not going to be around for too much longer, but we will have these pictures forever and will always look back and think what a beautiful day we had with him.

3. Will/did a similar theme carry into your wedding?

Yes, not so much with the Parisian elements, but it's back in the stunning Yorkshire countryside and again will be one BIG celebration of our relationship. We want our guests to arrive and think "oh, that's so Jessica & Andrew!!" throughout the day. Ultimately, we just want our guests to have the most amazing time on our wedding day. It will be our way of thanking them for being such a big part of our lives. We both work in the creative industry and we are putting our ALL into our wedding and we've got lots of little features and surprises planned, but that's all I'm sharing for now, the rest you'll have to just wait and see...

4. When/was the big day?

We are getting married on Friday 22nd August 2014. It's a bank holiday weekend here, so will give our guests plenty of time to recover.

• Photographer: Belle and Beau
• Venue: Blake Dean in Hebden Bridge, Yorkshire
• Wedding Planner & Stylist: Soirée de Luxe