Fall Color Anniversary Session | John + Sarah

John and Sarah had an intimate wedding in 2020 with plans to celebrate with a much larger group in 2021 for a big wedding reception. We photographed their October wedding and were booked for their reception the following year as well. But as time went on, they changed their plans and ended up canceling the reception altogether. Since they were still going to be up in Traverse City on their original date, we all decided on holding their date to do an anniversary session instead. It was so lovely to see them again a year later and document these portraits amongst the beautiful Fall colors. It's been an honor to photograph John and Sarah on so many occasions. You can view their engagement blogpost HERE and their wedding blogpost HERE. We can't wait to hopefully do many more sessions with John and Sarah in the future!

Fall Color Engagement | Adam and Laura 2.0

After getting rained on during their original engagement session date, we decided to schedule a second session for Adam and Laura to hopefully spend a bit more time capturing portraits of the two of them and their sweet pup, Callie. In case you missed it, you can check out their rainy engagement photos HERE first, and then come back to take a look at their Fall color engagement portraits. We had beautiful weather and gorgeous colors on this day, much different than our grey and rainy twenty-minute session before. We had so much fun getting to hang out with them twice and capturing two very different scenes and circumstances with them. It just made us all the more excited for their wedding!

Langley Senior Portraits | Port Oneida

We loved photographing the beautiful Langley in Port Oneida for her senior portraits. We adventured around the area to take photos everywhere from an old historic schoolhouse, to a field full of Queen Anne's lace, and eventually ending up at the beach. Because on stunning summer nights in Northern Michigan, we often find ourselves at the beach.

Maternity Portraits | Bill and Michelle

We photographed Bill and Michelle's Maternity Portraits on a gorgeous September morning. We met them a couple hours after sunrise, and though it was a bit chilly with the wind, it was the perfect golden morning. It was an honor to capture their growing family and we were so excited when they reached out to us again this year for family photos with their baby girl! Keep an eye out for that blogpost coming soon!

Pyramid Point Portraits | Zac + Joelle

On a beautiful snowy, February afternoon in the winter of 2020, our dear friends ventured out to Pyramid Point with us. Despite the chilly temperatures and slippery slopes, Zac and Joelle were up for the hike. They stood there, hand and hand with the icy blue lake stretching on and on beyond them. It created the illusion of being on top of the world.

'love is a choice.

sometimes we tend to believe it's just a feeling. but it's so much more than that. it's sacrifice. it's waking up everyday, dying to yourself in order to value and pour into another human being that will at one point or another 'fall short' in your eyes. it's not always easy, but when you find someone who your soul adores, you wake up with this feeling in your heart that nothing could take away and you realize just how worth it every sacrifice is.'

- Joelle

Beautiful things happen when there is trust between a couple and us. We are firm believers in the friendship between photographer and couple. When trust and relationship is established, everyone is much more comfortable. Photos no longer feel awkward, but more like a friend adventure. We always love to get to know our couples prior to and during their sessions. We feel blessed to already have been friends with this lovely couple. Because of this, and the adventurous dynamic of the shoot, we were allowed the creative freedom to capture more playful, genuine moments. They trusted us to guide and direct when needed and at the same time, we were able to take a step back, let them be and capture their real interaction together.

P.s. How freaking rad are they in their matching Blundstone boots?!

Locations | Pyramid Point and Port Oneida

Adam and Kelly Proposal

Adam and Kelly

Adam and Kelly have the sweetest love story, and we just love them together. This shoot will always and forever hold a dear place in our heart. Adam is my (Sarah's) younger brother and Miles' best friend. We got to know Kelly while they were dating and she quickly became one of my best friends. When Adam reached out with his plans to propose, we were over the moon. The week leading up to the proposal, Miles and Adam trekked down the steep snowy slope to scout out the location. Together they found the perfect spot for Adam and Kelly as well as hidden locations for us to shoot the proposal in stealth.

Brown Bridge

The day came and we arrived to the location early. The snow had slightly melted and then refroze so the path down was more like an ice skating rink. I'm embarrassed to say that I (Sarah) had a wipe out on the way down and nailed my head on a tree root when I fell. However, nothing was going to stop me from capturing and celebrating this moment with my brother and his soon-to-be fiancée. Miles helped me back up, brushed the snow off and we continued to our respective hiding spots. We sat and waited, fingers going slightly numb in the cold and butts most definitely soaked through from sitting in the snow. Still, all of that was hardly noticeable to us in the wake our anticipation. After a little while, we heard a loud 'careful Kelly, it's slippery!' from Adam. That was our cue!

The Proposal

At the bottom of the hill, Adam took her by the hand and they looked out at the view while he chatted with her briefly. By the time he got down on his knee with the ring, I was already a mess of silent tears. We remained hidden the entire time so they could have their moment alone. Kelly had no idea that we were there, and even when Adam pointed out the spots we were hidden, they could only just see the edge of my boot from behind a tree. It wasn't until they continued on their hike and were well out of sight that we emerged and went on our way. We were able to celebrate them later which was so fun. It was so special to capture this proposal for some of our favorite people. We also both had the honor of standing in their wedding last October. We love Adam and Kelly!

Location | Brown Bridge