Danny and Kelsey met at a friend’s wedding. She was a bridesmaid and he was a groomsman. They sat next to each other during the reception and were able to talk throughout the night. They were both living in different states, (she in California and he in Oregon) but a few months later that same couple that got married, had a birthday party for the prior groom and several friends flew/drove in. They spent some more time together, and after the weekend they decided to plan a trip for her to fly out to Portland, Oregon since she had never been. She booked a flight and started their almost 2.5 year long-distance relationship.
Each of their dates required and a full weekend of plans and a flight to either Portland, Oregon or Los Angeles, California. They both were able to explore their cities together more and enjoy a mini-vacation each time they flew to the other. Sometimes their trips took them both to new places. Like Danny’s first trip to Hawaii. Kelsey introducing Danny to eating all of her favorite foods while in Japan, wine touring in Italy, hiking over Positano, and so many more great memories.
While we weren’t able to make a trip to Japan or Italy for their engagement session, it still needed to be true to them. When we chatted about a location that was meaningful to them for their session, they both said the beach. Kelsey grew up near the California beach and just like me, they enjoy the calming and relaxing environment that the beach brings. Initially, Danny was going to propose during a road trip down the coast for the holidays. His plans didn’t work out, but it was still meant to be that the coast was to have a bigger part of their story.
I love it when my couples opt for an engagement session.
In fact, I like to call them more of a trial run or practice for the big day.
So I was so happy to hear Kelsey and Danny feel the same way when I asked them how they felt after their session and seeing their final images.
“I was so nervous leading up to it [Engagement session] because we hardly have any photos together since I never look good in photos. I always feel like I’m so awkward, but you really made it so much more comfortable and relaxed when we were there. We truly appreciated and fed off your energy throughout the experience. I think I was still a little awkward but you really helped give some direction to help hide some of that and we love our photos! We didn’t know what to expect but
…After our shoot and seeing the photos now, it’s much more relaxing knowing how these things go, and knowing we can trust our photos are going to turn out great on our wedding day!…
Going into our wedding day with a “practice” shoot and knowing how much we like you in person really takes away a lot of the anxiety we felt leading up to the engagement shoot.”
Kelsey and Danny
