Rachel+Matt (and Jade and Mernerner)

This is the first engagement shoot that I’ve done where a ceramic alligator has been present, and I must say it was very fulfilling to have him there.

Rachel is perhaps the most giggly girl I’ve met. Always happy, always excited. Matt is Rachel’s cool calm, but is also always happy, always excited, just very cool and calm and collected about it. Jade is their super cute puppy who is not cool or calm or collected, but is VERY EXCITED. Mernerner is their ceramic alligator that Matt painted for Rachel while they were dating (he is a piggy bank alligator) who is the most cool, calm, and collected of the bunch (because he is ceramic).

Together we romped around the park and took engagement pictures. Rachel taught me that packing clothes for the holiday trip to your parents is best done in Tupperware (Rachel – I did this when I went home for Thanksgiving, and I could fit 50% more in there than I could in my giant suitcase and it was awesome). Matt taught me about kayaking (they met while Matt was teaching a class). Jade taught me that TREATS ARE AWESOME. And Mernerner taught me to save for retirement. It was awesome and Geoff and I can’t wait for their wedding next September!

Danielle+Emry // Engaged in Raleigh

Danielle and Emry are getting married at Disney World right before Christmas, so it was only fitting that they run around their engagement session with mouse ears, right? Right. I was there to help document the running around and to try and keep up with their sci-fi conversations regarding movies, books, and genetic modifications (where’s Geoff when I need him). They’re also big fans of cheese to which I can totally relate, and to which it was also very appropriate to bring along the mouse ears (they didn’t bring anything with them but the ears, so in an effort to not loose them, I wore double mouse ears around the park. At one point I asked them, “Where are the mouse ears?” to which they replied, “They are on your head.”).

I had an awesome time wearing dueling mouse ears and climbing on things and taking pictures while some dude drinking something out of a paper bag followed us around for a while to see what we were doing (it’s not an engagement session without this guy at every. location. ever.). I wish we could be at Disney World with them in December but a clash of schedules is keeping us away, so I’ll wish Danielle and Emry the best wedding ever and to totally ride the Tower of Terror for me because I hear that is awesome.

Meaghan+TJ are engaged and like autumn

Meaghan and TJ just moved up from Charleston where there wasn’t too much seasonal change, so they were pretty excited to do their engagement pictures in Raleigh in the fall with the leaves and the prettiness and so on. And the leaves were looking GREAT!! And then Sandy came through and blew a bunch of them away. :) But no fear! There were still some left in this forest! So we grabbed their props and walked down the lane and took pictures with the trees. We also, bizarrely enough, stumbled upon some sort of army training exercise where a bunch of guys in camo with artillery were sneaking around the woods that surrounded us. We really wanted them to pop up a few feet away in the background of the pictures, but alas, it was not to be. So we made our own fun by talking about silly stuff and being generally goofy and them being obviously cute and we found the NC State horses who were pretty photogenic but not as much as Meaghan and TJ. :)