Picture it with me. You’re newly engaged. As in, your dream engagement ring was tenderly slid on your finger just a few days ago, your iPhone call log is full of all of the giddy Facetimes you’ve made to everyone you can think of with your left hand up in the air as soon as they answer, your cheeks are twinging with (welcome) pain from the smile permanently pasted on your face for 48 hours straight.

You might think that, as a Saint Paul-based, documentary-style wedding photographer, my one and only job is to capture your whimsical, adventurous love story through timeless and evocative photographs. And while you wouldn’t be wrong because that is, in fact, what I do with this sweet, blessed life of mine… there is SO much more to it than that. 

I was lucky enough to be there to document it all, but the real lucky ones are Caleb and Alexa. They have such a genuine, playful love that I was able to capture as the golden hour slowly turned to blue, as the earth slowly turned on its axis, as if just for them.

Every single couple and every single photoshoot is special to me in some way or other. But this particular shoot with Anna and Luke in downtown Minneapolis was especially special because it was my first engagement shoot since moving home to Minnesota. It was its own homecoming of sorts, a sweet reminder of how lucky I am to serve my couples… and in a place I now call ‘home’ again. 

This whimsical, adventurous engagement shoot in Montana was the epitome of why I love to do what I do. Danielle and Christian chose a location close to where they fell in love, at Under Canvas near Yellowstone National Park.

Take the dreamiest January Savannah weather, tack on the sunlight coming through the live oaks and the stunning Georgian homes surrounding us, and then add in this couple being so exactly in their element… and we had ourselves a storybook engagement shoot. I knew from the moment I met this couple that the shoot of their love would be as one-of-a-kind as they come.