A little over a year ago, the man of my dreams asked me to be his forever. This week we went back to where he asked to celebrate this sweet season.
Everyone thought I was silly for wanting to do another photoshoot after the beautiful photos we have from our proposal. Since we will have been engaged for almost 2 years when we get married, I really wanted a photoshoot to celebrate this season. Our proposal photos are so special to me because they captured a day of pure and unbridled joy, surprise, and love. A feeling that I get to relive every time I look at the photos. But in the year since we got engaged so much has changed. We have both grown so much and experienced so much together as a couple. I felt like the season we were in when we got engaged is so different from the season we are in now. I really wanted to commemorate this season with beautiful photos too.
For our engagement photos, picking a location was super easy. We knew that we wanted to go back to Asheville and have our engagement photos done where we got engaged.
When it came time to book an engagement & wedding photographer, I knew exactly who I wanted to work with. I booked our wedding photographer, Siobhan Lorraine Photography, back in May 2021. Siobhan is well known for adventurous, outdoor photoshoots. She is often taking photos of couples at the beach or on a mountaintop. Her and I actually went to middle school together and I’ve watched her work on Instagram over the years as her business has grown. Every time I saw her posting wedding or engagement photos, I always thought to myself, “She is going to take my wedding photos one day.” When I found out she was available on our wedding date I knew we had to book her.
Everything about her style aligned with what we were looking for and after a very fun intro phone call with her, Andrew and I were both convinced that she was a perfect fit for us.
We decided to schedule our engagement photoshoot in the fall – the same season that we got engaged and the same season that we are getting married.
We scheduled our photoshoot on a Tuesday for golden hour. Andrew and I both took a half-day from work, I did my hair & makeup, and then we drove the 2 hours to Asheville.
We had two outfits planned for the shoot. One casual and one more dressy. I bought this beautiful burgandy dress from Lulu’s. It was a wrap dress with long sleeves and a slit. It was flowy and comfortable and moved stunningly in the wind.
The day of Siobhan texted me and asked if we would be interested in starting our shoot at a waterfall and then going to the mountaintop for the second half. We OBVIOUSLY were so down for waterfall photos. We decided to do our casual outfits at the waterfall and save our dressy outfits for the sunset on the mountain top. When she first told me the address for the waterfall, I didn’t think anything of it, but as we pulled in we realized that Andrew and I had hiked this exact trail with friends the first year we were dating. It was such a funny and sweet coincidence.
After the waterfall, we hopped in our cars and drove over to the next stop. Andrew and I changed into our dressier outfits in the car. It was a quick hike up to the top of the mountain and the sunset was just about to start so it was kind of chilly. As we got to the top it was not only very chilly, but also very very windy. Andrew and I struggled to get into poses that didn’t have my hair flying everywhere, covering one or both of our faces.
Siobhan was great and very patiently worked with us to help get my hair under control and to quickly snap shots in moments when the wind lulled. We spent the entire shoot cracking up laughing. It was genuinely such a fun evening.
I could not believe my eyes when Siobhan sent over our full album a few days later. Every single photo was so gorgeous and absolutely how I had envisioned our engagement photos. She captured us so perfectly and made us feel so comfortable in front of the camera.
If you are engaged, I highly recommend having your engagement photoshoot done by the same photographer who will be photographing your wedding. Its an incredible time to get to know the photographer + you get beautiful photos to cherish for a lifetime.
* Photos by Siobhan Lorraine Photography
Always,
