Not only is this engagement a personal favorite because of the location but it’s also a favorite because MY GAL PAL KATIE IS ENGAGED! I met Katie almost 4 years ago when I was running around my apartment complex. She was walking her dog Windsor and I just had to stop and say hello. After a few chance encounters, we found that we had heaps in common: we love dance parties, photography and we’re both in education. As two girls in their twenties tend to do, we started watching the Bachelor together every Monday! Although she moved from the neighborhood, we kept our Monday night tradition and stayed friends through the stressors of building our businesses and figuring out life in DC. 

There are few proposal stories as sweet as Emily and John’s. John created a whole weekend, complete with a formal paper invitation, for their engagement weekend! he whisked her away to the Inn at Little Washington complete with tickets to a show, dinner and a proposal to boot! Emily even brought his adorable invite and tickets for me to photograph. 

I have ALWAYS wanted to shoot at Federal Triangle!! I am so so happy that Ritzy and Koji jumped on board with my vision! We both have the same taste in cityscapes and love all things french. We began our morning at Lincoln and ended in the middle of DC for from European inspired backdrops. Cafe inspired engagement photos? Yes please!

Have I mentioned how much I LOVE my couples?! Allison and Dave are probably among the goofiest pair out there… well ok, maybe just Dave is the goofiest. From the minute I started working with these two, I have had a blast. Allison is a type A planner like me but these two still managed to seem go-with-the-flow surrounding wedding day things. The last minute rain plan switch was an easy breezy decision that really looked like Plan A! 

I had the absolute BEST morning with Emily & Nima. The two were a bit nervous at first because they had never had their portraits professionally done but, I must say, they did EXCELLENTLY! I think the champagne helped a bit 😉 We decided to snap sunrise engagement portraits at the Jefferson memorial. This was actually AFTER peak bloom and most of the cherry blossoms had died but we got lucky with one tree and crab apple blooms! 

Today, I wanted to share all of my thoughts, feels and snaps behind my incredible labor of love on my blog. This was hands down the hardest thing I have ever done in my photography career. I’m not going to lie, hosting a workshop is tough. It was the first thing in my business I felt nervous about and I had serious doubts leading up to May: What if people didn’t buy tickets? What if attendees walk away feeling disappointed? What if I failed? Well, I’m here to tell you it was all worth it. The feeling of being able to give business owners tools to become more successful is an all time high feeling for me.