A Downtown Fairhope Engagement

I think about three things at the start of every engagement session. One, I am excited to meet my couple! If we’ve only met via phone prior to the session, I’m also wondering what they look like and hoping they’ll spot me so I don’t have that awkward moment of wondering if every couple who walks by are my clients. Two, I am always thinking about the lighting. Is it sunny, or cloudy? This affects where I can shoot on any given day. I start making a plan of how I need to time things depending on the intensity of the sun, or presence of clouds. Most importantly, I’m thinking of a good place to start the session. It needs to be a location with good light, a nice background and not super crowded. This last one is the trickiest, especially when shooting in popular locations.

I arrived in downtown Fairhope a little early the day of Lane and Jake’s session. Since we were doing their session on a Friday evening, I anticipated it would be pretty crowded. However, at the time, I didn’t realize it was also art walk Friday. Yikes! It turned out that the downtown area was very crowded! I pulled into a parking spot outside the local bookstore and noticed the parking lot across the street had some good light hitting the shrubs at the back of the lot. I’m always searching for good light first and foremost. So I told Lane and Jake I wanted to start their session at the back of this parking lot. Yes, I realize that sounds crazy! But, in a town that has been the recent victim of two hurricanes and is still dealing with debris cleanup, so many of my favorite spots aren’t looking quite the same these days.

I’m so thankful that Lane and Jake trusted me with this crazy location idea because it worked out great! Not only did it give us a neutral background for starting the session, it was also relatively crowd free. Yay for locations that seem unconventional, but work out great!

A Highlands Proposal

Lane met Jake her freshman year at Auburn University. Her best friend from high school introduced them. I love stories like that! Jake asked Lane to be his wife while they were vacationing in Highlands, NC. These two love hiking, so it was fitting that Jake planned the perfect proposal, timed with sunset, at the end of a hike. Lane said they accidentally ended up parking at the bottom of the trail instead of at the top, so they had to pretty much run up the mountain to get to the top by sunset. All the while, Jake was carrying an engagement ring in his pocket and waiting for the perfect moment!

After the sun went down, a storm began to roll in and Jake proposed. Lane said yes right away and that’s how their new adventure as an engaged couple began! I love hearing proposal stories like this. It helps me get to know my couples and their personalities a bit. Lane and Jake clearly love the outdoors, so wrapping up their downtown Fairhope engagement session at the Fairhope Pier was a perfect choice.

I love that we had just the right amount of cloud cover for soft lighting on this day. We were also lucky that it wasn’t too terribly windy, which is often the case close to sunset! These two giggled their way through most of the session, which I loved. I also loved that they didn’t bat an eye when a random stranger walked up and decided to adjust Lane’s hair. Not everyone would be ok with that (especially amid a pandemic!), but these two are so sweet that they just smiled and said thank you. I have no doubt their wedding day will be full of joy and I can’t wait to capture all those special moments for them!