Cory Graves
How Cool Are This Dallas Couple's Dr. Who-Themed Engagement Photos?
Shaun Menary and his wife Shannon see themselves as more than just wedding photographers.
To hear Shaun tell it, it's the crux of what they do: He and his wife are more like storytellers — ones tasked with capturing the personalities of their subjects, right on down to the most unique shared interests of the couples they shoot. Their hope is that their images tell stories about the future betrothed.
And, every once in a while, Shaun says, a couple will Then there's Dallas couple TJ Mundell and Timmy Patterson, who co-own the Dallas-based Green Lotus Spa & Retreat together and who are getting married in November.
They not only let Shaun flex his creative muscle, but they took some of the coolest engagement photos you'll see all year.
These diehard Whovians aren't just head over heels for one another, but for the long-running British sci-fi series Dr. Who, too. And, says Shaun, their affinity for both is quite infectious.
“My wife and I had watched a little bit of Dr. Who but we weren't really into it,” Shaun says. “Then, when we met with them, they kind of convinced us to give Dr. Who another try. Now we're avid Dr. Who fans. They were so cool. TJ has a friend who is a prop master and builds props for all these TV shows. They commissioned him to build the Tardis that we used in the shoot. That was built from scratch just for them — for the photo shoot and just for them to have it because they have a lot of Dr. Who-themed parties. They're big fans. Whenever we found out that we were going to have that for the shoot, I really wanted to do something made them feel like they were in the advertising posters that the BBC puts out – just completely over the top. I wanted to make them feel like they were in the TV show.”
Continues Shaun: “Some other people have done it. Search around on the internet for Dr. Who-themed photo shoots and there are a couple here and there. [But] I hadn't really seen anybody do it in such a way that looks like a movie poster or an official advertisement. I've been doing photography for awhile and I immediately in my head saw the over-the-top commercial production look for it.”
The Menarys has some help, of course. They credit property owners Deep Ellum 42 not only for providing the industrial-looking warehouse space for the shoot free of cost, but for letting the team run extension cords from another building the company owned when the photographers discovered that some copper thieves had hit the building just before the shoot, killing its power.
“They have a couple of abandoned spaces [in Deep Ellum] and they're really awesome guys,” Shaun says. “They reached out to the creative community in Dallas and let people know, if they ever need a spot to do any photo shoots or music videos, that they can call them. They actually give us free access to any abandoned space that's available, which is really, really cool of them.”
Even so, the abandoned building had other issues, too.
“We had fans and everything,” Shaun says. “But, that day, it was 102 degrees. In the warehouse, we were all drenched in sweat. But the guys were troopers and everybody had a good time.”
Really: If anyone wasn't having an amazing time while taking these photos, it's hard to tell. And the final product is certainly magical — which is precisely what keeps Shaun coming back.
“I've always been attracted to storytelling and just love in general,” he says. “Being able to capture and tell other people's love stories, I think, is a very awesome and worthy endeavor.”
