Falls Park Engagement Photos | Lindsey and Dan

When Lindsey and Dan were visiting family in western Michigan, they went for a boat ride on the lake. While they were in the boat, Lindsey saw some of their family members holding up signs with one word on each of them, so when they all stood together, it said “Will you marry me?” Next summer, they’ll be saying “I do” at the same place where Lindsey said “yes!”

Lindsey and Dan are about to move back to the Midwest, so they wanted their engagement photos to show the iconic parts of the place that’s become a significant part of their story, so we went to downtown Greenville. Falls Park had a lot to offer, from the iconic Liberty Bridge overlooking the Reedy River Falls to places that look more like a little garden. There’s the “root tree” and the Wyche Pavilion, which we didn’t know until later used to be the original Duke’s Mayonnaise factory! And of course, the “water wall” behind the Peace Center had that gorgeous glow on it as the sun went down. We also gushed over all the cute dogs that were walking around the park that day.  We were so lucky to have a perfect sunny day with temperatures in the 60s! A few trees had started to turn yellow, and the golden hour light shined through them so beautifully. I loved how Lindsey’s pretty green dress looked in front of them!  Towards the end of the session, we were standing at the top of the stairs with a view of the river and the buildings as the sun went down, putting a perfect glow on them as they put their arms around each other.

Check out a few of my favorites from Lindsey and Dan’s session!

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Ready for a super fun engagement session like this one?  Check out some of my other sessions below, click here to read more about me and what I do, or click here to get in touch about scheduling your own engagement session!

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Lake Keowee Proposal | Connor and Jess

Dan and I had hiked the Raven Rock Trail at Keowee Toxaway State Park back in February.  We were looking for a lesser known trail with a pretty view.  When we got to the overlook, I immediately asked why more people don’t post pictures from there.  Well, you can imagine how happy I was when Connor told me that’s where he planned to propose to Jess!

Jess and Connor had been friends since high school, eventually becoming a couple.  They share a love for the outdoors and have hiked some really cool places together.  Eventually, Jess gave Connor a ring she had fallen in love with years before, holding onto it until she knew she found the person she wanted to be with for the rest of her life.  When Connor and Jess were spending the week at Lake Keowee, Connor suggested hiking the Raven Rock Trail, a place he loved to visit growing up.

As Connor and Jess made their way through the trail, there were bags hanging from the trees.  Each bag had a gold bow, a rose, and a scrapbook page with pictures of them together.  Once they reached the overlook, there was a picnic set up with wine, cheese, and pepper jelly.  There was a scrapbook on the picnic blanket for all the pages to go into.  Around the wine bottle was a necklace chain with the stone from the ring Jess had given Connor.  After Connor put it around Jess’s neck, he proposed to her with the ring with a new stone in it.  She says she was so overwhelmed that she couldn’t even remember whether she said yes, so Connor popped the question again a minute later so she could answer.  Not only was this a beautiful view of the lake at golden hour, there was literally nobody else on the trail the entire time, making this such an intimate proposal.  Their first “congratulations” came from a boat horn down below! 

Shoutout to Connor’s brother and brother’s fiancée for setting up everything beforehand and for hiking the first half of the trail with me!

Are you looking for a wedding photographer who loves quirky and intimate weddings? Click here to read more about me and what I do, or click here to get in touch!

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Table Rock Engagement Photos | Jillian and Vincenzo

Vincenzo left Italy to come work at his uncle’s restaurant in Greenville.  That’s where he first met Jillian!  After they’d been dating a while, they visited Pretty Place Chapel, where Vincenzo proposed.  Even though he was so nervous that he opened the ring box upside down, Jillian said yes! 

Jillian saw my photos in a South Carolina hiking group on Facebook and reached out to me about her engagement photos. I saw she was also a Clemson alumna, so that’s always exciting! She told me she wanted her engagement photos to be in the mountains. I was so excited that someone around here was as excited about pictures in the mountains as I am! We discussed possible places, but we had to hold off on choosing a location and setting a date since a lot of places were closed with the stay-at-home order. We talked about going to the Blue Ridge Parkway, but it would be hard to know what was open until we got there.  When the state parks opened back up, we decided to go to Table Rock on a Thursday to avoid the park reaching capacity.

I think there were more geese than people on the day we had our session!  We also found some ducks, a large snake, and the biggest snail I’ve ever seen.  Even though we couldn’t do the session in the spring, we still got cool weather for June!  The three of us took a trail where we found a few pretty waterfalls. We had so much fun talking about Italy, South Carolina, the mountains, and their wedding plans!  As the sun started to go down, we went towards the lodge, where there was a beautiful view of Table Rock right next to Pinnacle Lake.  The water even glowed orange from the colors in the sky!

Check out my photos of this awesome couple in one of my favorite places in the whole state! 

Looking for a wedding photographer who supports your non-traditional ideas? Click here to read more about me and what I do, and click here to get in touch!

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Downtown Greenville Star Wars Engagement | Madison and Clay

Madison and Clay met when they were art students at Shawnee State University in Ohio. After graduation, they moved down to Columbia, South Carolina, near Clay’s family. One night, Clay and Madison were sitting on the couch, and Clay asked Madison if one of the couch cushions felt weird.  Madison felt it and pulled out a ring box.

Clay has been a lifelong Star Wars fan. He builds and sells custom replicas of different characters’ light sabers, complete with different colors and sound effects when they hit things. I was so excited when Madison told me they wanted to include them in their engagement photos! Clay explained to me how each Jedi builds their own, so the hilt of every light saber is different. He plans to build a special one just for Madison to have for their wedding day.

Setting up a ring shot with a light saber had the COOLEST sound effects of any ring shot! Madison and Clay coordinated their outfits so Clay would wear a Millennium Falcon shirt and Madison would have Millennium Falcon earrings. They didn’t plan for the light sabers to coordinate with their outfits, but they did anyway. Clay asked if we could go over to the spot in Falls Park with the smaller waterfall, where he could stand on “the higher ground” like the standoff at the end of Revenge of the Sith. He also wanted a pose similar to the one Mark Hamill and Carrie Fisher did for a promo poster.

We initially planned to have the session in Falls Park when the trees were in full bloom, but the spring of 2020 had other plans for us. When I heard Falls Park was closed, I started thinking of similar locations, and it dawned on me that the pavilion at Cancer Survivors Park could look really cool with the light sabers. Even though we had to postpone the session anyway as things got crazier, we still spent a few minutes at Cancer Survivors Park once it got dark, and it looked just as cool as we thought it would!

Check out some of my favorites from Madison and Clay’s session! You can see more of Clay’s light sabers here.

Update:

Click below for Madison and Clay’s Star Wars wedding photos!

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Clemson Proposal | AC and Ben

This proposal has been in the works for 2 months now. Ben originally wanted to propose to AC on the day of the Clemson spring game. The pandemic came, the game was cancelled, and we heard people were being escorted off campus. We reconvened a few weeks later and set a new date. Ben organized a weekend trip to the mountains and would pass through Clemson on the way back.

Ben always knew he wanted to propose at the spot where they first met—outside of Core Campus, near the stadium. It was a quiet day on campus with only a few people passing through. He pulled up to their special spot and they walked down the steps. After they talked briefly about how that was where they met, Ben pulled something out of his backpack and got down on one knee. AC said she was completely caught off guard, but in the next few minutes, she found out that there was a lot more to this plan than she realized. Ben had gotten coordinating face masks off of Etsy just for these photos. He brought his Clemson ring in his backpack because she knew he didn’t normally wear it and he wanted to have it for the photos. AC’s family would be waiting for her at their lake house. Her friends had even suggested getting their nails done together a few days earlier!

We took some pictures around campus, and even though we got tired and sweaty, there was so much joy. As I walked behind them and took pictures, I kept overhearing AC:

“WE’RE ENGAGED!”
“They knew?”
“She did?”
“WE’RE GETTING MARRIED!”

Check out some of my favorite photos from this special day!

Does this proposal look like what you had in mind? Check out some of my other posts below for more ideas, or click here to contact me about your own photos!

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If you’ve been following me for a while, you know that I shoot a lot at Clemson. It makes sense, considering I graduated from there and my husband and I had our proposal, engagement session, and wedding there! I’ve shot there in every season and can tell you what trees to look for in January, April, and November. Want pictures inside Death Valley? I know when it’s open to the public. If you want a ring shot in purple and orange flowers, I know where and when to do that. If there’s a building on campus that’s special to you, there’s a good chance I’ve taken pictures of someone there before. While I have a general outline that I follow with all the essentials—Tillman, Sikes, Reflection Pond, Carillon Bell, and outside of Death Valley—every session is unique and there are different parts of campus that mean something to different people. Here are some of my favorite places on campus that you might not have thought about.

Daniel Hall

I spent so much time in this building as an undergrad and considered it one of the ugliest buildings on campus. I had no desire to have my graduation pictures there. At some point, though, I realized how much I love the ivy and the lattice outside one of the entrances.

Downtown Clemson

The place where you probably hung out on Friday nights and watched a lot of away games together on Saturdays.

Botanical Gardens

This one gets its own post so you can see all the beautiful places in it and how it looks at different seasons! One thing I love about Clemson is how well you can see the hard work of the staff and students who study plants.  I always find something new when I visit the Botanical Gardens!  I was born in Arizona and I have a soft spot for cacti and succulents, so we’re lucky to have a spot with them here in South Carolina. Also, how gorgeous is this pier?

President’s Park

This one may seem obvious because of the legend behind it, but do you know what else makes this the perfect place for a proposal? Since it’s one of the only places on campus with an outdoor covered area, you can still plan to be there whether or not it’s raining. Here are some pictures from proposals I shot on a sunny and an on-and-off rainy day. Also, the bushes bloom so beautifully there in April!

Places Outside Death Valley

As much as I love the days when the stadium is open to the public, it’s only at certain times, so I have to get creative with what to do at the other times.  The porch of Stadium Suites gives you the whole stadium in the background and I love the view you can get from outside some of the gates!

Lake Hartwell

Since Lake Hartwell is not part of the main campus, it’s easy to forget about. If it’s cold outside, nobody will be at the lake, making for a more intimate and peaceful session. The reason I love the rowing center is because of the paw on the docks, but the lake is accessible from some of the off-campus apartment complexes as well.

Lee Hall

I was surprised nobody had ever asked me for a session here because I think this building is so cool! I thought it’d be even cooler if we went after the sun went down and creatively used some flashes.

Sunflowers

It’s amazing to me how much I’ve discovered that I used to walk or drive past all the time. In the summer, the sunflowers at the student organic farm are nice and tall.  You can even color coordinate with them like Tori and Michael did!

Sikes Hall

It’s not exactly overlooked, but it’s one of my favorite places on campus to take pictures. Not only do I love the steps and pillars here, it becomes one of my favorite backgrounds when it gets cold.  When the tree in front of Tillman loses its leaves, you get Sikes and Tillman in the same picture.

Like what you see? Check out some of the other photos below and let’s plan your Clemson engagement session!

Botanical Gardens

Campus, Lake Hartwell

Lake Hartwell, Esso, Stadium

Campus, Harts Cove

President’s Park Proposal

Botanical Gardens, Lee Hall

Desert Garden, Sunflowers

Proposal at Core Campus

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Ready to set up your own Clemson engagement session? Click here to get started, or check out some of my other blog posts below!

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South Carolina Botanical Gardens and Clemson University Engagement | Presley and Logan

April

This engagement session is for an extra special couple. When Dan and I were at Clemson, we were part of Alpha Phi Omega, or APO, the service fraternity. Dan’s assigned little was a pledge named Logan, who quickly became one of our closest friends. Eventually, Logan was assigned a little, a pledge named Presley. Logan and Presley quickly became friends and eventually became a couple later that year.

APO formal is traditionally when each new member presents their big with a paddle they’ve decorated and each big presents their newly-initiated little with a stitched letter shirt. Presley was unable to attend formal in April, so she and her little planned to do the exchange a few days later. Her little, Hannah, suggested it might be fun to wear dresses and do the exchange somewhere pretty on campus and take some pictures. Presley wanted to come up with another plan when the forecast said it would rain, but Hannah convinced her that they could go to President’s Park and take cover under the rotunda if they needed to. As another APO brother took their pictures of them on his phone in front of the rotunda, he told Presley to turn around. She turned around and thought he was telling her to get out of the way of someone’s pictures, not realizing that the person with the camera was me with my hood on and that I was actually there to take pictures of her. He told Presley to turn around again, where she saw Logan, who had told her he was at work. He got down on one knee with the ring and Presley said yes!

November

Fast forward to a few minutes after Clemson beat South Carolina for the sixth year straight. It was the last day of November, but none of us were cold. Presley and Logan had chosen outfits that fit the location perfectly as it transitioned from fall to winter. We met up in the South Carolina Botanical Gardens for the first part of their session. We had JUST missed the peak foliage, but there was still plenty of fall color for us to find in the gardens. I loved the way the leaves on the ground added to the whole atmosphere. The new pier at the duck pond is so pretty and we had to get some pictures with it! I picked up all sorts of things that had fallen on the ground to set up for their ring shots. We then did a quick run through the main campus until the sun went down. After the sun went down, we headed over to Lee Hall to see what we could do with those huge glass windows at night.

Check out some of my favorites from this beautiful day!

Ready to take some photos of you and your favorite Clemson Tiger? Send me a message to get started, or check out some of my other work from around Clemson below!

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Sawyer Family Farmstead Christmas Session | Noel and Graham

Two years ago, I did engagement photos in Falls Park for my friends Noel and Graham. It was the first weekend of December, so we got to have fall leaves and all the joy of downtown Greenville being ready for Christmas: two things Noel absolutely loves. Long story short, they had to change their wedding date, and I already had a wedding on the one day they could get the venue they wanted. We had talked for about a year and a half after that about doing another session—we talked about Charleston, Lake Lure, a vineyard in the mountains—but life happens and this session just wasn’t panning out. 

In September, I shot a wedding with FamZing at Sawyer Family Farmstead. Not only is it a gorgeous Christmas tree farm, it has an incredible view of the mountains of western North Carolina and the lake. I was in love and needed a reason to shoot there again! I texted Noel the next day and told her I found THE place to do their photos—I knew how much she loves the mountains, water, and Christmas, so I knew she had to see this place. I sent her some pictures and we set a date. 

The day finally came for us to go to Sawyer. It was sunny and the temperature was cool enough to know it was fall without being too cold. The farm was getting ready for everyone to start coming in to find their trees, so there were Christmas decorations everywhere! The cats supervised us through the session, but didn’t like looking at my camera. I got the most beautiful light coming from behind them when we were in the middle of the Christmas trees.

I like to start my sessions where there’s more shade and end it where I’ll get the most light as the sun goes down. In this case, we would start in the area more surrounded by trees and end at the pergola on the hill, which overlooks the mountains and the water. Noel kept gushing about how gorgeous the place was and I kept telling her, “We haven’t even been to the best part yet!” Not only was the view from the hill breathtaking when we got there, we were in the perfect place to see the sunset. I felt like we kept doing the same poses because the sunset kept getting cooler with each picture I took! 

On a side note, how perfect are these outfits for this location? I love a good red and green color scheme! I’m so happy we finally got to have another session together and that we were able to make it work at such a beautiful place. Check out some of my favorites from this wonderful day! 

Clemson University Engagement | Ann and Joe

I first met Ann on the night of Miss Clemson University in 2017. It was my first time as the pageant photographer and Ann was one of the pageant co-directors. A few months later, I did Ann’s graduation portraits around campus. As we were talking that day, we found out that she and I are both from Virginia and her sister-in-law now teaches at my high school! 

Ann and Joe met while they were students at Clemson. While they were at a brewery in Virginia (about 45 minutes from where I grew up), Joe proposed in front of a beautiful view of the Virginia Blue Ridge Mountains. Isn’t the band on her ring so pretty? 

Since Clemson is where so much of Ann and Joe’s story takes place, it only made sense for them to have their engagement photos there! We met on the first weekend in November, right when the leaves started to change. We started at Lake Hartwell, which was silent on this cool fall morning, making this part of the session so peaceful and intimate. We progressed to the Esso Club, a popular spot in downtown Clemson, especially to watch away games. They were in town for the weekend to see a home game, meaning that if we did the session the next day, we could go into the stadium. We hit all the iconic parts of campus and got some pretty yellow trees around Sikes Hall and President’s Park. I will always love an engagement ring with two Clemson rings, especially with Ann’s gorgeous engagement ring and some of the first leaves from this fall. 

Check out some of my favorite photos of Ann and Joe from this gorgeous fall morning around Clemson! We’re so lucky to have such a gorgeous campus to use for commemorating our stories.

Clemson Proposal and Engagement | Tracy and Lawrence

Every once in a while, my friend Tracy will ask me about doing a session with her.  She was Miss Clemson University, then she graduated from Clemson twice, and we’ve done a few just for fun.  This time, it was Lawrence reaching out, telling me he was planning to propose to Tracy and he wanted me to be there.

Tracy and Lawrence had come back to South Carolina for a wedding.  Lawrence caught the garter.  They headed to Clemson for Sunday brunch and took a walk around campus.  They walked through President’s Park, where the superstition says you’ll be together forever if you walk through there holding hands.  The two of them walked hand-in-hand down the path until Lawrence stopped and got down on one knee.  I wasn’t actually close enough to hear him pop the question, but I saw a long hug and a kiss.  After Lawrence told Tracy to turn around to see me in the bushes (not being sketchy at all), I pointed out the tape I had put on the ground for Lawrence to stop.  We went inside so they could be in the air conditioning and share the news with their parents.

Lawrence had perfectly coordinated his outfit to complement the dress Tracy had packed, knowing there would be an engagement session that day.  Since it’s summer, we had the campus almost to ourselves.  We went back to President’s Park so I could take pictures of them actually walking through it, since I was behind a bush until the end of the first walk.  We came back through all the places where I’d done Tracy’s pictures for Miss Clemson University and her graduation years before.  The fountains were on at the reflection pond, which always makes the pictures there look cooler. 

These two made a 95-degree session at 11 AM so worth it!  Check out some of my favorites!

Clemson Engagement Session | Lindsay and Tim

Lindsay and Tim met through the engineering program at Clemson.  They became friends when they both had their engineering co-op with the same company and they started dating not long after that.  For their first date, they went paddle boarding on Lake Hartwell, right outside their apartment community.  While they were on a ski trip to Colorado, Tim proposed to Lindsay on a horse-drawn carriage!  How sweet is that?

Since Clemson is such a special place for Lindsay and Tim, they decided that was where they wanted to do their engagement photos. They came down from Charlotte with their sweet puppy, Ray. We started down by the stadium and worked our way through the main part of campus.  Since legend has it that walking hand-in-hand through President’s Park guarantees that you’ll be together forever, it’s pretty much a milestone in any Clemson couple’s relationship, and we had to get some pictures in there.  This session wouldn’t have been complete without going to Harts Cove and taking some pictures at the docks on Lake Hartwell, where they had their first date.

Since the students were on spring break, the campus was nearly silent for a Friday evening, making this session more peaceful and intimate.  It was the perfect spring day; the temperature was in the upper 60s, the sky was clear, the trees were pink and white, and there were so many colorful flowers in front of Tillman Hall. The bigger trees were still bare enough for that glow you only see in the winter, and to show Tillman Hall in the background when we were at Sikes Hall.   

Enjoy the photos from this beautiful spring evening!  I can’t wait for their fall wedding in the mountains!

To see more Clemson engagement sessions and other work I’ve done around there, visit my Clemson page. 

Caesars Head Engagement Session | Sierra and Remington

I have a lot of pictures to take in the wonderful month of October, and the first were for Sierra and Remington’s engagement session in the mountains!

When I first met Sierra and Remington in July for Sierra’s graduation photos at Clemson, they told me they were about to celebrate their 4th anniversary as a couple.  Right before that day came up, Remington told Sierra to make sure her trunk was shut because he got something out of it earlier and he wasn’t sure if it had closed all the way.  Thinking he was at work, Sierra opened the trunk to find three boxes with letters and pictures of them together.  Remington came from behind the house and proposed!  How pretty is the ring he picked out? And yes, I looked all around for red and yellow leaves before Sierra and Remington got there so I could do a fall-looking ring shot, even though it was still a few days before the fall temperature kicked in.

Sierra and Remington told me that they really wanted their pictures to have a pretty view, so I suggested a few places I’d been to in the upstate.  They chose Caesar’s Head, which became one of my favorite places in the whole state of South Carolina after I did an engagement session there last fall. Sierra and Remington drove up from Newberry and the sunset did NOT disappoint!  There was a small group of people who had come to the overlook to see the sunset, and I heard one kid say, “They look like they’re getting married!”    

I’ve found that people in other states tend to forget that there’s more to South Carolina than Charleston, but Charleston doesn’t have a view like this!   Check out some of my favorites from this session with an awesome couple in a beautiful place.

Clemson University Engagement Session with Cacti and Sunflowers: Tori and Michael

Tori and Michael first met at governor’s school and became friends when they became counselors for the governor’s school summer camp program. After they both graduated from Clemson with engineering degrees, Michael proposed to Tori on a cruise to the Caribbean. 

Since so much of Tori and Michael’s story took place at Clemson, that’s where we went for their engagement photos. I've done lots of sessions at Clemson and even had my own engagement photos there, but I love how every session I've had there shows a different part of campus that each person wants to look back on.  We didn’t just take photos around campus, we went into the botanical gardens and the student organic farm as well. There’s a section of the botanical garden with all desert plants, so until we moved to the grassier areas with palmetto trees, it would be hard to tell we were in South Carolina if you weren’t there to feel the humidity. With a high of 84 degrees that day, it was even hard to remember that it was July. Although their clothes got caught on the cacti a few times before we came up with a new plan for where to stand, I’m happy to say that the only time anyone got pricked was when I set up the shot of Tori’s ring on top of a cactus with a flat top and little tiny spines around it.  Luckily, I didn’t really feel them and they came out pretty easily.  

I thought the outfits Tori and Michael chose were awesome and looked amazing against some of the plants in the area. Their first outfit complemented the colors of the desert garden so beautifully. They coordinated their second outfit with the sunflower field in mind, using their matching yellow Converses to complement the sunflowers and stand out from their black and white outfits.  

Here are some of my favorites from this Arizona/South Carolina/summer-feeling session! I had a lot of fun with these two and I can’t wait to be part of their wedding day! 

Disney World Engagement Session: Amethyst and Matt

Matt and Amethyst are not just a couple who likes Disney enough to have their engagement session in Disney World.  They are a couple who have such a significant part of their story in Disney World, so of course their engagement session would be at “the happiest place on Earth.”  

Amethyst and Matt first met while working at the same Disney World resort.  This past February, Matt got all of Amethyst’s friends in on his plan to propose at the top of the Orlando Eye, a giant Ferris wheel. When the ride was delayed due to a fire alarm going off, the group decided to take some pictures in front of the Ferris wheel while they were waiting. When it was Matt and Amethyst’s turn to have their picture taken, Matt popped the question.  Fast forward to the day of the engagement session: seeing the Winnie the Pooh characters react to a couple saying they’re engaged is the cutest thing ever.

We started the session on the beaches by some of their favorite resorts.   Yes, we had a beach and Cinderella’s Castle in the same shots!  That Winnie the Pooh song that says “and the rain rain rain came down down down” is a perfect description of what happened partway through.  Amethyst and Matt pulled out their Mickey and Minnie umbrellas, which was not only adorable, they looked especially gorgeous when a little patch of golden hour sun peeked out for a few minutes. To top it off, we saw a rainbow for a minute!  Luckily, there were lots of gazebos in the area, so Matt and Amethyst could stay dry while dancing to Disney songs.  Keep an eye out for a hidden Mickey in one of the gazebos!

I don’t normally shoot after the sun goes down, but we were in Disney.  We headed to Main Street and watched the fireworks and light show at the castle.  I asked Matt and Amethyst if they wanted some pictures with it.  They said to wait until the grand finale, when there would be the most fireworks.  There may have been a ton of people around, but the rush of catching the right moment was incredible.

I knew as soon as Matt and Amethyst told me where they wanted their engagement photos that this would be so much fun.  Hope you love looking through these photos from the most magical location!

“People do crazy things when they’re in love.” –Hercules

Clemson University Engagement Session: Diana and Andrew

One day at Clemson, Andrew and Diana walked hand-in-hand through President's Park.  Andrew did not know at the time that superstition says that means they'll be together forever.  This time, they held hands and danced through the park, knowing their wedding day will be here before they know it.

I've done lots of portrait sessions around Clemson, and I had my proposal, engagement, and wedding pictures at Clemson, but this was my first time shooting an engagement session at Clemson, so this one holds a special place in my heart.  It was also my first time doing a session in January; I don't know what colors are the most festive for January, but I'm pretty sure that Diana and Andrew wore them for the session, and Diana’s purple coat is so perfect for a session at Clemson.  At such a cold time of year, there were no leaves on the trees to hide some of the buildings on the main part of campus, so Tillman Hall could be in the background of our photo from the steps of Sikes Hall and the photo of Diana’s yellow-gold and sapphire engagement ring.  Diana has been on Clemson’s rowing team all four years of college, so we took some pictures down at the lake on the dock with a tiger paw painted on it.  With a high of 37 degrees that day, we couldn’t see or hear any people or boats, making it a peaceful time for Diana and Andrew to snuggle up in a blanket on the dock and watch the sun go down over the water.

Here are some of my personal favorite photos from Diana and Andrew's engagement session.  After having so much fun with them at their session, I'm even more excited now to be part of their wedding day!

Crozet, Virginia Engagement Session: Katherine and Anthony

I always watch the forecast closely and frequently in the week prior to a session, and Katherine and Anthony's session was no different.  Yet somehow, I woke up, saw that the forecast had changed from "cloudy" to "partly cloudy," then looked out the window to see the roads covered in snow!  Nobody in the area was expecting this to happen.  Luckily, it melted enough to clear the roads so I could meet Katherine and Anthony for the session.  This would be the first session I'd ever done in the dead of winter and it would be in Virginia, so I knew this would be my coldest session yet.  What I didn't know was exactly how cold it would be.   Although the snow all melted before I could get a shot of Katherine's ring in the snow, it was still cold enough for us to take pictures in front of a frozen pond.

After meeting through their friends a few years earlier, Anthony proposed to Katherine in Washington DC on the steps of the Jefferson Memorial, which faces the Washington Monument.  They wanted to have their engagement photos in the Virginia Blue Ridge Mountains, so in the week between Christmas and New Year's, we met up in Crozet, slightly west of where Katherine and I both grew up. Their outfits were the perfect winter engagement session outfits; the colors were so classically wintery, Katherine's red sweater was a perfect fit for that time between Christmas and New Year's Eve, and Katherine's mom made the scarves that both of them wore to the session.  Katherine's yellow-gold ring was covered by her gloves for a good part of the session, but it made for some cute photos of her trying to keep Anthony's hands warm.  We ended the session a little earlier than I usually do because the windchill was so brutal (by our Virginia standards), but the golden hour lighting kept us out for just a few more pictures.  

I'm so glad we were able to brave the cold at least for a little while and that the snow didn't keep us from driving to these mountain views.  Since apparently everyone else in Crozet decided to stay inside that day (not that we can blame them), we had this gorgeous landscape all to ourselves.  It's always an honor to be part of putting these sweet moments into pictures, but it's even more special in the wide open with absolutely nobody else in sight.  I can't wait to come back to Charlottesville for the next part of Katherine and Anthony's story!

Downtown Greenville Christmas Engagement Session: Noel and Graham

Graham proposed to Noel last December.  Between that and having a name like Noel, how could we not have an engagement session in December in front of a Christmas tree?

We didn't know until that day that we had scheduled the session on the day of the Christmas parade, so after spending a while looking around for parking and wondering whether we'd be able to get to the tree, we found a parking garage (where we were given candy canes), and we discovered that the tree wasn't blocked off after all! There was a crowd of people near the tree.  When we asked if they were waiting to take pictures there, they said they just wanted to watch, and then they left when we were finished.

We were offered hot chocolate, we heard Christmas music playing, and we saw Christmas lights turning on.  Only the weather could have made the day more festive, but we couldn't complain about it being 60 degrees and sunny.  As we walked through Falls Park, it started to seem more like a fall engagement session.  There were still a few trees with red, orange, and yellow leaves left, which also complemented the outfits they'd picked out to go with the Christmas tree.

Noel and Graham have been together since high school! I heard them say "I love you" so many times during the session.  Things like that are what make engagement sessions so much fun!

Caesars Head State Park Engagement Session | Alexis and Skylar

Take 1:

Alexis, Skylar and I decided on Caesars Head State Park for their engagement session. None of us had ever been there, but the pictures looked gorgeous. The forecast said it would be cloudy with a 15% chance of rain. Apparently when the elevation is that high, "cloudy" can mean intense fog, so I had to turn my headlights on and drive slowly, even though it was 3:30 in the afternoon.  It's hard to get phone signal around there, so I knew I had to just push through and meet Alexis and Skylar at the top to discuss what to do.  It was raining when I finally met them, even though the weather channel still said it wasn't. We looked out onto the overlook...

...and decided to come back another time. 

Take 2:

There was a freezing cold wind when we came back, but it was sunny and we could see everything.  Here's what we saw from the same overlook this time:

Alexis loves elephants, so Skylar gave her this plastic elephant when he asked her to be his girlfriend.

He stuck with the theme when he asked her to be his wife, only this time, there were real elephants involved.  They took a trip to the zoo and he got down on one knee in front of the elephant exhibit.  Since he didn't actually give her an elephant this time, they bought this little elephant at the souvenir shop afterwards to commemorate the day.

Of course, Alexis had some other cute elephant figurines to incorporate into their session.

The sun made for some amazing rim light through the trees, something we wouldn't have had if we tried to shoot in the fog.

The sunset was perfect, something else we would have missed out on if we'd tried to shoot on that cloudy/foggy day.

There was so much laughter during this session on both sides of the camera.  I had such a fun day with them!