South Carolina Mountain Engagement | Sydney & Dyce
Sydney and Dyce met in Charleston while Sydney was a student at College of Charleston and Dyce was a cadet at The Citadel. Dyce remembered Sydney telling him about Pretty Place, a chapel close to where she grew up. When they made plans to spend Easter with Sydney’s mom, Dyce decided he wanted to propose to Sydney at Pretty Place at sunrise.
Pretty Place can be notoriously difficult to coordinate, especially for a proposal, where one person has to be unaware of what’ll happen there. When I talked to Dyce to go over a plan for the proposal, I made sure he was well aware of how crowded Pretty Place might be, especially since it would be a Saturday and the day before Easter. He followed my advice to get there close to when it opened, even though sunrise wasn’t for more than an hour, and he agreed that we should go take pictures at Bald Rock afterwards. Still, there were more people there than I’d ever seen at Pretty Place, everyone was standing up to take photos, and there was even a small praise band playing. Dyce and Sydney waited until more people had cleared out before they got in line to take pictures with the cross. Lots of people jumped up to take a photo when Dyce got down on one knee, but I managed to still get a photo without Sydney noticing me!
After taking some photos at the small overlook next to the chapel and in the trees, we drove down to Bald Rock, where there were a lot less people and there was a lot more space. When I took a closeup photo of Sydney’s ring, I noticed a date on her bracelet, which she told me was the date that she and Dyce started dating–super cool that she happened to be wearing it that day and it just so happened to be in a photo with her engagement ring!
Check out some of my favorites from Sydney and Dyce’s engagement at Pretty Place and Bald Rock!
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Clemson Engagement | Jenna & Luke
Luke and Jenna aren’t just any Clemson Tigers. They were THE Clemson Tigers. As in they were the ones in the Tiger and Cub costumes at the football games.
I always love working with Clemson couples. My husband and I met while we were Clemson freshmen and we got married there, and over the years, I’ve enjoyed hearing other Clemson couples’ stories about how they met and what memories they share there together. Luke said that he wanted to propose along the dikes at Lake Hartwell because he and Jenna used to go running there together. Even though I’d been to the rowing center many times as a student, I apparently had never actually been to the dikes. It’s a bit of a steep walk from the parking lot, but there’s a beautiful view of Lake Hartwell on the other side. When I found the spot that I thought would work best for spacing and lighting, I texted Luke a photo, and then pretended I was just taking pictures of the pretty lake on a nice day.
The day that Luke proposed was a beautiful spring day, the day before Easter. He told Jenna that they would meet one of his former professors at Clemson for lunch, and since it was a nice day, they could walk along the dikes. He stopped at the spot I’d sent him a picture of and proposed! Jenna was so caught off guard, and even though she said “yes,” she also kept saying “I’m so confused!” Luke said that he had schemed with Jenna’s sister to figure out what kind of ring Jenna would like, and Jenna couldn’t get over how beautiful it was.
After we took some photos at the lake, we went down to the football stadium. They both mentioned wanting photos with the cub statue at the back of the stadium. We also got some photos at Tiger Walk, which was still pretty new, and gave us a cool view of the back of the stadium. There happened to be some purple flowers next to Tiger Walk that made for a great spot to take photos of all of their rings.
Enjoy some of my favorites from Jenna and Luke’s engagement session at Clemson!
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Proposal at Lake Lure Flowering Bridge | Molly & Joe
Joe and Molly were engaged at the Lake Lure Flowering Bridge in Chimney Rock, North Carolina on a beautiful evening in the early spring!
Molly and Joe met one day in downtown Clemson while they were students there. After they graduated, they both moved to the Charlotte area. On the day that Joe planned to propose, they had decided to have dinner at Burntshirt Vineyards in Chimney Rock so that he and Molly would both know to dress nicely. Molly was wearing a flowy white dress with blue flowers. Joe told Molly they’d be stopping at the Lake Lure Flowering Bridge beforehand. The Lake Lure Flowering Bridge is a special place to Joe because his grandma used to be one of the volunteers who helped maintain the garden. When Joe and I talked through a plan, he decided to propose at the section of the Flowering Bridge that overlooks Lake Lure. I got there early and sent him a photo of the angle I thought would be best. Even though it was a small space, Joe stopped in the perfect spot to get down on one knee and I stood off to the side to take some photos!
On the day of the engagement, Chimney Rock was significantly colder than Greenville and Charlotte. Somehow, we had sun, wind, and the slightest amount of rain at the same time, all within the time that we were taking pictures. At the end of February, we still mostly had bare trees and some of the winter decor on the bridge, but some of the flowers had started blooming, so it kind of felt like we were between seasons. Molly said that she felt like they had spring engagement photos, but also had photos they could use for Christmas cards later.
Check out some of my favorite photos from Molly and Joe’s engagement at the Lake Lure Flowering Bridge!
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Proposal in Downtown Greenville | Lily & Clark
Lily and Clark met almost three years ago when they came to Greenville for college. Clark had seen photos of Cancer Survivors Park in downtown Greenville and decided he wanted to propose to Lily there. We talked on New Year’s Eve and worked out a time to go a few weeks later.
I went down to Cancer Survivors Park a week beforehand around the time that we had planned to be there. First of all, I wanted to see where the light would be at that hour so we could plan for the best spot. Second of all, I saw some pictures of how places near it had gotten totally flooded a few days earlier, so I needed to make sure it wasn’t destroyed before we planned to be there. Third, I didn’t know how many people are there at 8 AM on a Saturday in the winter—thankfully, it was mostly empty. I sent Clark pictures of three spots that I thought would be good for the proposal and he told me which one he liked the best. I told him, “Hopefully it won’t be so cold and windy next week!”
Well, it wasn’t windy on the day of the proposal, but it was even colder than it was the day that I checked it out! In order to get to the spot we had chosen, we had to walk past a digital billboard, which told us it was sunny and 20 degrees. Lily was wearing a pretty blue trench coat, which was perfect for this winter day. When Clark proposed, we pretty much had the park to ourselves, so it was nice and quiet for them. They celebrated afterwards with brunch at Tupelo Honey Cafe.
Check out some of my favorite photos from Lily and Clark’s proposal in downtown Greenville!
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Falls Park Engagement | Batare and Femi
Femi came to visit Batare in Greenville on Batare’s birthday. Before they went out to dinner at Halls, they took a walk through Falls Park. They stopped by the Carolina Foothills Garden Club Sanctuary, where Femi proposed!
Femi and Batare first met during a medical school trip in Dominica, and they couldn’t believe they’d never met before. They spent most of their lives in the same city, they were undergrads at the same school at the same time, and they’re both Nigerian. Once they started a relationship, they moved around together until they were placed in different cities for their residencies, about 6 hours apart. They still visited each other often and found a lot of places they love in both cities.
When Femi and I talked through the proposal plan, we decided to have the proposal in Falls Park. It was close to everything else in Greenville, and Femi could easily get Batare dressed up by telling her they had a dinner reservation at a nice restaurant. Femi made a reservation at Halls Chophouse, a place they both like. We ended up choosing the Carolina Foothills Garden Sanctuary because it’s a little bit more private than the rest of Falls Park, but the scenery is still really pretty.
We had some really pretty light since a lot of the trees had already lost their leaves. Since their session was so close to the winter solstice, golden hour was pretty early in the day, so most people were still at work and not hanging around downtown while we were taking photos. Since Christmas was only a few days away, we got some photos with one of the big and beautiful Christmas trees downtown, and we heard the musicians playing Christmas music. Batare was so shocked in the first few minutes, but the shock became spontaneous laughing and hugging. You can just feel their happiness in these photos!
Check out some of my favorite photos from Femi and Batare’s engagement in downtown Greenville!
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Chimney Rock Engagement | Molly & Ethan
Right before Christmas, Molly and Ethan had come down from Indiana to explore different cities in North Carolina. After spending a couple days in Asheville, they headed towards Charlotte, and decided to stop at Chimney Rock State Park. They liked the idea of the big rock overlooking everything, and they don’t see a lot of mountains where they live.
Chimney Rock is a unique area—some scenes from Dirty Dancing were filmed around here, and Chimney Rock State Park itself was one of the filming locations for The Last of the Mohicans. To get to the overlook, there are about 500 stairs, but there’s also an elevator that goes 26 stories through a mountain. Since it was December, the tunnel leading to the mountain had red and green uplighting, giving a Grinch-looking effect, and the railings leading to the overlook were decorated with wreaths, bows, and garlands.
It was a cold morning, but it quickly warmed up because it was sunny and there was no wind. I knew I was the first car to park at the bottom, so I watched the parking lot from the overlook until I saw Molly and Ethan drive in. I took pictures at the top until Molly and Ethan got to the top, and then I pretended to just take photos of the scenery. They looked out over Lake Lure together to take in the view, and Ethan got down on one knee. He gave her a beautiful vintage-looking ring!
After taking some photos at the overlook, we headed down to the Lake Lure Flowering Bridge to get a change of scenery. Since it was a Tuesday morning in the winter, there was nobody at all in the park or at the Flowering Bridge, and we had both places all to ourselves! After we finished taking photos, Molly and Ethan got to spend the rest of the day celebrating their engagement!
Check out some of my favorite photos from Molly and Ethan’s engagement at Chimney Rock!
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South Carolina Waterfall Engagement | Maggie & Stephen
South Carolina Mountain Engagement | Stephanie & John
John and Stephanie live in Houston, but decided to make a fall trip to the mountains of North Carolina and Tennessee. They’d never been to the Carolinas or Tennessee before. Stephanie remembered seeing Pretty Place Chapel on TikTok and decided that she wanted to see the sunrise there while she was in the area. She and John saw that it would be open for sunrise on the Monday that they would be there, and decided to go then.
John knew that this was where he wanted to propose to Stephanie. He showed a coworker some photos that had been tagged there on Instagram and they came across my photos of a couple who got engaged there a few weeks earlier. He went to my blog post about them, where I’d also linked all my info for visiting and having photos taken at Pretty Place. He sent me an email, we set up a time to talk, and we made the plan to go!
The windy road to Pretty Place from Greenville is one lane in each direction and goes up a mountain through the woods. I always get nervous driving there for sunrise because so much of that drive is in the dark. But when I’m almost there, I’ll notice that the sky has turned from black to dark blue, and I’ll start to see reds and oranges coming through. It was cold when I got there, but I was relieved to see that there weren’t a lot of cars in the parking lot. I easily found a seat in the aisle that felt like the right distance from the cross. John had sent me a selfie they had taken that morning, so I knew who they were when I saw them.
Stephanie asked someone to take a photo of them in front of the cross on her phone. She went to take her phone back, but when she saw that John was on one knee, she gave her phone right back the person and went back to the cross. After Stephanie said yes and everyone cheered, John pointed me out to Stephanie, and both of them gave me a big hug.
After we took some photos around the chapel, we went down to Bald Rock and Wildcat Wayside, where there were almost no people. It was so quiet and peaceful! Bald Rock Heritage Preserve has a rock face that overlooks Table Rock Mountain. Even though there’s graffiti all over it, the view is still beautiful. We also took some photos at the stream by the parking lot, where a lot of red leaves were floating. After we finished taking photos, Stephanie and John went back up to Pretty Place to soak it all in, then went out to eat in Brevard.
Enjoy Stephanie and John’s fall engagement photos in the mountains of South Carolina!
For more information on visiting or having photos taken at Pretty Place, this post is for you!
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South Carolina Mountain Engagement | Alexa & Matt
Alexa and Matt made a weekend trip to Greenville to celebrate the anniversary of the day they started dating. Alexa likes Pretty Place, but when they made the trip up here last fall, they came all the way up to Pretty Place and saw that it was closed for an event. They ended up checking out Caesars Head and Bald Rock instead.
This fall, Matt told Alexa that there was a work event in Greenville, so maybe they could check out Pretty Place this time. They came to Pretty Place dressed so nicely, but when someone offered to take their picture, she was really frustrated with the lighting, since it’s so much shadier in the chapel than it is in the mountains. I popped in and suggested they stand to the side of the cross and behind it, where the it wasn’t shaded. Matt asked if I could take a photo on his phone, and I said yes. Little did Alexa know that Matt and I had talked before, and I was actually putting them in an optimal place for a photo of their proposal!
It was cloudy and on the verge of raining, which made for a moody-looking fall landscape at Pretty Place. After we took some photos with the mountains and woods there, we went down to Caesars Head, about 20 minutes back towards Greenville. Caesars Head faces west instead of east, making it a more optimal place for sunset, but the fog/clouds had almost completely covered everything. It started to rain a little, so I got my umbrellas out for Alexa and Matt to use. The good thing about the rain is that we only saw one other person the whole time we were at the park, so it was nice and intimate! I loved the way that their outfits contrasted, but still looked like Christmas colors, and they popped so beautifully against the cloudy sky!
Check out some of Alexa and Matt’s engagement photos in the mountains of South Carolina!
(For more information about visiting or having photos done at Pretty Place, this post is for you)
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South Carolina Mountain Engagement | Diana & Christian
Diana and Christian moved to Greenville from Houston a few months ago. So far, they’ve loved exploring the mountains together and they really wanted fall foliage in their photos. They liked the idea of having a summit view versus having mountains in the background, so based on my descriptions, they chose Pretty Place and Caesars Head, neither of which they’d been to before. I recommended going to Pretty Place first and finishing at Caesars Head, about 20 minutes down the road, because Caesars Head faces west and has a better view of the sunset.
We checked the schedule for Pretty Place and saw that it would be open on a Monday evening at the beginning of November. Everyone talks about how pretty the view from the chapel is, but nobody talks about how it has some of the best fall foliage in South Carolina. The leaves change earlier there since it’s so much higher in elevation than Greenville, so we missed peak foliage, but we still had some beautiful color. The mountains looked orange, there was a beautiful tree with red leaves, and the leaves covered the ground in the wooded area next to the chapel.
I usually have Pandora or Spotify playing in my car, but I can’t get signal on a lot of the road that leads to Pretty Place and Caesars Head. I rolled down my window—the temperature was perfect and I could hear and smell the fall leaves. When we got to Caesars Head, we came out to the overlook first so they could take in the view. I pointed out Table Rock Mountain in the distance, and Diana and Christian told me that they reached that summit together, so it was cool for them to have that in their photos. Since it was a Monday, there weren’t a lot of people there to watch the sunset, so we almost had the overlook to ourselves. The sunset colors came through with a fall breeze that made Diana’s hair move. It was pretty much everything we could ask for in a fall engagement session in the mountains!
Enjoy some of Diana and Christian’s fall engagement photos in the mountains of South Carolina!
If you’re thinking about visiting Pretty Place or having photos done there, this post is for you.
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Proposal in Downtown Greenville, SC | Jordan & Noah
Jordan and Noah were engaged on a beautiful fall evening in downtown Greenville, South Carolina!
When I talked with Noah, he told me that they had moved here together from the Midwest after they met in college. He said they liked walking the Swamp Rabbit Trail together and he wanted to propose downtown. We talked about possible places to do it, since there are so many beautiful places in downtown Greenville, and we ended up choosing the Carolina Foothills Garden Club Sanctuary. This is a shadier spot off in the woods, just out of sight from the Liberty Bridge, but super easy to stumble upon. There are stone staircases and a small waterfall. The bonus is that the sun comes through the trees to the back, making for some glowy lighting, I went there a few days beforehand and sent Noah a video so he could see where I would be and where I’d want him to stand. As soon as I got into view, Noah got down on one knee. It was a much more private spot than the Liberty Bridge or the Reedy River Falls, but there were still a few people on the stairs who cheered them on.
Noah had told Jordan that they were going to try the restaurant Limoncello for the first time, then go to one of their favorite spots: Jack and Diane’s piano bar. The reservation for Limoncello was later than what Noah actually told her, but he gave enough time for photos and for sharing the news with their family and friends. By making a dinner reservation, he also was able to get Jordan to wear something she would want to wear in photos.
Enjoy some of my favorite photos of Jordan and Noah on this beautiful November evening in Falls Park!
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Engagement at Caesars Head | Amber and Logan
Amber and Logan were engaged on a beautiful fall evening at one of my favorite places in South Carolina: Caesars Head State Park!
They met and started their relationship when they were both living in Utah. They took the leap and moved across the country together when Logan accepted a job in Greenville. They love exploring the outdoors together, and Logan said that Caesars Head was on his mind for a while. From the photos he’d seen, he thought the overlook would be the perfect place to propose. He came across my photos of Melanie and Karl’s engagement there and knew that this would have to be the place.
Logan told Amber that he made a reservation at a nice restaurant that was really far out. He did make a reservation at Topsoil, which he and Amber dressed nicely for, but he told her it was farther away than it really was. Instead of bringing her to the restaurant in Travelers Rest, he continued up the windy road for a while until he reached Caesars Head. He brought her to the overlook, where he got down on one knee and asked her to marry him, using his grandma’s engagement ring.
This was a classic, slightly chilly fall evening. There were leaves all around them on the ground. We were lucky to not have many people around on this Friday evening, so we were able to use a lot more of the space on the overlook. We went down the narrow staircase and took photos in Devils Kitchen, which has a cave-like feel to it. We took some around the woods and on the walkway until the sun started to go down. I think the overlook at Caesars Head is one of the best places to see the sunset, and it made for a fantastic place to soak in the feeling of saying yes to forever.
Check out some of my favorite photos from Amber and Logan’s engagement at Caesars Head State Park!
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Engagement at Pretty Place | Barbara and Christian
Barbara and Christian were taking a fall trip from Florida with their families through Pigeon Forge and Asheville. Barbara had seen photos online of Pretty Place and wanted to come see it for herself. Christian knew when he saw the photos that Barbara would love to get engaged there, so he and I coordinated a plan. We watched the visitation schedule closely to coordinate with their open hours and the dates Christian and Barbara’s families would be nearby. Eventually, we saw that it would be open for sunrise on a day when they could be in the area, and we planned for that.
For the whole week leading up to the proposal, right up until I got in the car, the forecast said there was a high chance of rain. Pretty Place Chapel is covered, but I still brought my umbrellas for the shots we took outside of the chapel. There was rain on the drive up, but it had totally stopped by the time we got to the chapel. I wasn’t sure if the chance of rain, or the fact that it was a weekday, would keep some people away, but when I saw parked cars along the road before I could see the chapel at all, I knew the answer. It looked like a whole church service! When I reached the chapel, the fog was so intense that it just looked like a white sheet behind the cross. Within just a few minutes, that fog turned into low clouds that hung around the mountains, just in time for a beautiful sunrise to come through! The sunrise and clouds over the mountains behind the cross literally looked like the pictures people share on Facebook and Instagram on Easter Sunday, except it wasn’t a picture. As people came and went through the chapel, I moved down the seats in the aisle until I reached an aisle seat on the second row.
Christian and Barbara stood in line down the aisle to have their photo taken while I took photos of the people before them to get the lighting right. When Christian’s mom took a photo of them on her phone, Christian got down on one knee. Barbara was so excited! So many people started cheering and taking their picture, and Christian pointed to me as the one to look at. I waved my arms and people started to back off. When we moved out of the chapel, Barbara said, “Oh, I forgot to say yes!”
We moved away from all the people in the chapel and off to the side. There is a tiny overlook over the mountains that had a small line forming, so while we waited in line, I took some photos of Christian and Barbara with the trees. The foliage was some of the best I’ve seen in South Carolina so far, and we went further into the woods to just get some photos with the trees.
What a way to start a fall morning! Check out some of my favorite photos of Barbara and Christian’s engagement at Pretty Place Chapel! For more information about visiting Pretty Place, check out this post!
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Central Park Portraits | Christian and Tommy
I did a mini-session in Central Park on the 4th of July with my cousin Christian, his husband Tommy, and their puppy Asta!
Dan and I were planning to visit with Christian and Tommy in New York in April of 2020, which obviously didn’t happen. It’s all good because we got a puppy that week and we love her soooooo much. Over the next couple of years, we traveled a good bit for weddings, and a lot of things in New York took a long time to reopen, so we didn’t make it up there for 3 more years. I told Christian and Tommy we could do photos somewhere and they suggested Central Park, which made me so happy.
If you’ve never been to Central Park, it’s a lot of purposeful green space in the middle of the concrete jungle. In some of these photos, you’d never even know they were taken in New York City! I hadn’t been to Central Park since I was 15, before I started photography, so I didn’t have a lot of places in mind. I told them I’d seen photos of a pretty staircase and found out the name was Bethesda Terrace, which was even prettier in person! It was the morning of the 4th of July, so even though I expected a lot of people to be there, people in New York tend to not be out and about until later in the morning. I only had to do edit a few people out of the background.
Christian and Tommy adopted a puppy a few months ago and named him Asta, after the dog in the old film, The Thin Man. Asta had never been to Central Park before, so he was super excited. Luckily, Dan was with me and could make noises and hold treats to get Asta to look at the camera. We only did a short session so Asta wouldn’t get too overwhelmed, but we covered a lot of ground in that time. For more tips on taking photos with your dog, click here.
Enjoy these photos of Christian, Tommy, and Asta in Central Park!
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Table Rock Engagement | Hannah and Brandon
Brandon wanted to propose to Hannah while they were visiting family and friends in upstate South Carolina and western North Carolina. He came across my blog post on where to take engagement photos and decided that Table Rock State Park had the scenery he was looking for. It’s one of my favorite places in the upstate to take photos because you can get mountains, a lake, and some small waterfalls without hiking at all. He specifically mentioned wanting to propose at the pier on Lake Oolenoy with the mountains in the background—perfection!
Before driving down from Ohio, Brandon told Hannah that he wanted to have couple’s photos taken with a photographer who did his friend’s photos, and they shopped for outfits together. Since the family was in on the plan, Brandon made sure someone offered to do Hannah’s nails before the session.
Even though the rain snuck up on us in the forecast, it stopped raining at the park right when Brandon and Hannah arrived, and didn’t start back up again. We didn’t hardly see any other people, probably because the rain had kept them away. We met at the Table Rock trailhead and took some photos at the little waterfalls near the beginning of the trail. After that, we drove to the park headquarters, where we would get the view of the mountains over Lake Oolenoy. Brandon’s friend had set up a beautiful picnic on the pier while we were on the trail, then left the park. Of course Hannah said yes when Brandon proposed, and she couldn’t believe how beautiful the ring was.
After we took photos for a little longer, I went home, and Brandon and Hannah had some alone time in the last 30 minutes or so before the park closed. This was the best summer evening we could have possibly asked for!
Enjoy some of my photos of Hannah and Brandon’s engagement at Table Rock State Park!
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Pretty Place Engagement | Emily and Andres
Andres originally asked me about coming on a Saturday morning to Pretty Place to propose to Emily. He said that she showed it to him on TikTok, and he knew that had to be the place where he would propose. When I mentioned some of the logistics, like that you can only see two weeks in advance if it’s closed to the public for a wedding, he asked me how to pivot to make sure this would work. He eventually planned a trip a couple months later, involving going to Pretty Place at sunrise on a weekday. This was the day after summer solstice, so it was an early morning for us! Since he reserved the chapel for an hour, he could guarantee it’d be open while they were in the area, and that they wouldn’t have an audience during this special moment. I eventually typed up everything we discussed into a blog post, which you can read here if you’re interested in visiting or having photos there.
Andres told Emily that he had a conference in Greenville, and she sometimes comes with him when he travels for work. That was also how he convinced her to dress nicely that day. I got to the chapel about 20 minutes before Andres and Emily, but right after Andres’s parents, who were waiting in the parking lot until after the proposal. Since the chapel was reserved, the bathroom inside was unlocked for us. I hid in there with the door closed until I heard them pass by. They went down to the cross to take a selfie, and I came out from the bathroom when Andrea got on one knee.
For about two days before their engagement, it rained pretty consistently in Greenville, going back and forth between thunderstorms, pouring rain, and just barely raining. Luckily, the clouds came in and out that morning, so Emily and Andres would still get to see the view, but they also got some cool photos with the clouds. We took a few photos with the umbrellas in my car, and the staff at Camp Greenville left us some towels to use.
Check out some of my favorite photos from Emily and Andres’s rainy morning engagement at Pretty Place Chapel!
If you’re planning to visit Pretty Place, I also recommend stopping at Bald Rock, Wildcat Wayside, and Caesars Head State Park along the way! Here are some photos from there!
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South Carolina Botanical Gardens Engagement | Ashley and David
David and Ashley met through mutual friends on World of Warcraft. They began talking more during the pandemic and eventually started seeing each other in person. After working on a cruise line for several years, Ashley decided to move to South Carolina, where David lived. David proposed to Ashley at Caesars Head State Park, one of my favorite places in the whole state! He used her mom’s engagement ring, which I think is so beautiful and sentimental.
After spending so many years seeing the world, Ashley has enjoyed exploring South Carolina with David. When Ashley and I were talking about places to take engagement photos, she specifically mentioned how she loved the South Carolina Botanical Gardens in Clemson. This is one of my favorite places to take photos because everything changes throughout the year, so it pretty much looks different every time I go and I’m always finding new spots to use. This was in early summer, so there was so much green and plenty of color! It was hot at the beginning of the session, but as the sun got lower, the golden hour light looked so beautiful coming through the tree leaves. Between all the green trees, colorful flowers, and the plants in the desert garden, we had the best scenery and light for summer engagement photos. Ashley had a red scarf that coordinated with David’s red shirt, which made for some cool veil-like photos and contrasted beautifully with the green cacti and succulents in the desert garden!
I had an awesome time with Ashley and David on this summer evening and can’t wait to be part of their wedding this December! Enjoy some of my favorite photos from their summery engagement session in the South Carolina Botanical Gardens!
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Clemson Engagement | Sidney and Hayden
On Memorial Day weekend, Sidney and Hayden made a long weekend trip to Clemson University, where their story together began.
Hayden was originally planning to propose on Saturday, but since there was a high chance of rain and the forecast for Friday was perfect, we decided to make the proposal a day earlier. A walk through the South Carolina Botanical Gardens included a surprise proposal at the pier over the duck pond. Hayden’s brother took photos with a Polaroid and I pretended to take photos of the turtles in the pond until the proposal actually happened. The other people walking and the ducks happened to clear out right when it happened, but we heard the ducks quacking loudly after the proposal, like they had known to keep quiet and then started cheering with us. We worked our way around the garden until we reached the entrance, where the palmetto trees are. We went down to the geology museum so we could get a few photos in the desert garden too!
Legend has it that any couple who walks hand-in-hand through President’s Park is destined to be together forever, so we had to go take some pictures there. From there, we took a few photos around the central part of campus, like Sikes Hall and the Reflection Pond, as the sun went down. One thing I love about Clemson couples is that we have so many stories to share as we walk around campus. It’d been a long time since I had a Clemson couple whose time at Clemson overlapped with mine, so they remembered things like Clemson House and the time there was a duck in the Reflection Pond.
Check out some of my favorite photos from Sidney and Hayden’s Clemson engagement photos in the South Carolina Botanical Gardens!
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Harry Potter Engagement at Lake Lure | Alivia and Blake
A Harry Potter engagement session? Count me in!
Alivia and Blake made a day trip to Chimney Rock, North Carolina and stopped at the Flowering Bridge. When Alivia wasn’t looking, Blake tossed an envelope into a bush, then pointed it out to her. It was sealed with the Hogwarts wax seal and addressed to Alivia with the Lake Lure Flowering Bridge as the address—in Harry Potter, the letter is always addressed to wherever the person is at that moment. After Alivia read the letter Blake got on one knee and presented Alivia with his grandmother’s ring in a Marauder’s Map ring box.
The Flowering Bridge is a beautiful place in any season, but it hits differently in the spring when the weather is perfect and all the pinks and whites are out. Although it looks small when you drive by it, you can spend a lot of time in there taking photos with all the beautiful plants and displays. While there’s no Harry Potter references at the Flowering Bridge, it has a lot of bricks painted to look like classic books and a few artifacts, like Dorothy’s ruby slippers on yellow-painted bricks. The spot that Blake and I originally had in mind for the proposal had different decor this time that I didn’t think for the vibe he was going for, but since I got there early, I had time to pick a new spot. Lake Lure had been drained over the last several weeks and barely looked like a body of water, so having that in the background was out of the question too. I ended up choosing one of the archways that leads to the Peter Rabbit area. One of the mountains is right behind it, and the trees behind the arch had pink blooms. I texted a picture to Blake with a description of where it was and a stick figure drawing of where he should stand.
Enjoy some of my favorite photos of Alivia and Blake’s Harry Potter engagement at the Lake Lure Flowering Bridge!
Do you love the Lake Lure area? Check out some of the other engagement photos I’ve taken there!
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