Sometimes we show up to a new engagement session location and it’s not exactly what we expect. This doesn’t happen often – but it was certainly the case with Molly and Drew’s engagement session at Sky Meadows State Park! Molly and Drew had a clear vision of open alpine meadows at golden hour and asked about Sky Meadows while we were brainstorming locations. Not having been to the park myself before, but seeing lots of beautiful inspiration from other photographers’ sessions, I asked around for tips on where to go within the park and what to expect, had example images handy so I could try to find the same successful spots and arrived early enough to scout around the area a bit first. I was not expecting to find locked fences on all the fields, and for the field primarily used in other photoshoots to have an electric wire running straight across it to hold in a herd of very curious cows! Nowhere in our inspiration photos from Sky Meadows did we see any fences, electric wires, or cattle… and to top it off, our evening became unexpectedly overcast with the threat of rain the entire time, dashing our hopes of a perfect golden hour. I also knew that a re-shoot likely wasn’t an option, as Drew was only in town for a few days before flying back to Texas, and their wedding was just a few short months away. Things were looking a little rough and I was admittedly nervous. So tell me how this became one of the most gorgeous, inspo-worthy engagement sessions I’ve ever photographed!

Molly and Drew were so trusting and open throughout the engagement session. I reassured them that the electric wire a couple yards behind them would be easy for me to edit out of their final gallery – which was fully true, thanks to Lightroom’s AI spot removal tool! – and we went about our business with or without cows in the background, sometimes pausing to recompose so they were placed in a little more aesthetically pleasing way behind the couple. And of course, once our novelty wore off, the cows lost interest in mooooo-ved away further in the background. Molly and Drew were dressed beautifully – I absolutely loved Molly’s modest and feminine white dress – and brought along a picnic setup with a bouquet of pretty pink and white flowers to add an elevated touch to the session.

A sweet surprise awaited us at the end of our session – we did get sprinkled on for a few minutes, but nothing we couldn’t manage, and then as we turned to head back to our cars we spotted a partial rainbow overhead. Of course, we had to try to capture some portraits with the rainbow in the background! It was a dreamy ending to a stunning engagement session.

Molly and Drew will be getting married in December in a Catholic wedding ceremony in Bethesda followed by a reception at the bucket list-worthy Line Hotel in DC which I am so stoked about! It will also be my first time getting to work with the DC-area wedding planning/coordination team with White Lily Weddings, a fellow Catholic wedding vendor. Knowing that we’re going into a wedding day with a solid wedding coordinator on hand, a gorgeous venue, and a beautiful couple is the best and I can’t wait for their big day to be here! (Update: you can view their absolutely amazing wedding day on the blog here!)