If you had any doubts on how gorgeous snowy engagement pictures could be this will probably clear any of those doubts away! Of course it helps that Josh and Diane are one of the cutest couples!!! Welcome to their engagement session blog post! I am so excited to share these with you (and with them! 😉 )
Location #1 – The Christmas Tree Farm
See! Aren’t they SO adorable together?! Diane had emailed me about doing their engagement pictures after seeing photos I did for a mutual friends of ours!
As I was prepping for Josh and Diane’s session, this mutual friend of ours told me how totally adorable and in love these two are. She wasn’t wrong! During their session I kept thinking, “making them look cute is supposed to be work… they’re making this too easy for me!”
Just a few minutes into their session I asked them if there was anything in particular they were looking for from their session and Diane said she just loves the “cute, candid, in the moment” photos. All I could say was, “you’re rocking them! I seriously have so many of those already!”
Originally we had planned to do late fall engagement pictures but circumstances prevented that from happening. So I suggested waiting until we had some snow on the ground… that way we wouldn’t be shooting in “stick season” when all the trees are bare!
As we continued to plan I suggested shooting at a Christmas tree farm right after a snow fall so everything could be white and beautiful! Critz Farms in Cazenovia is a BEAUTIFUL place to shoot!… not only because of their acres and acres of Christmas trees and their red barn but they don’t mind us taking photos on the property at all! They’re so sweet and we are so thankful to have been able to use their gorgeous scenery!
We did part of their session in and around the trees and the other part right in front of the main barn where they have their gift shop! I just loved that the lighting was right so we could use this side of the barn and the silo!
Location #2 – Main Barn at Critz Farms
But what you can’t see is that Josh and Diane are standing in at least six inches of snow! They were such troopers for the whole session! I was totally bundled up in my coat, hat, mittens and boots but they weren’t wearing coats at all! That’s what I call toughing it out for the greater good (aka pictures!)
Josh and Diane are both in med school and actually met at our church here in Syracuse! This semester Josh is in Binghamton while Diane is here in Syracuse but they travel the distance down I81 enough to see each other!
Also, can I just stop and gush over the sleeves on Diane’s dress for a minute?! Aren’t they SO pretty and feminine?
Can you just see how much fun they’re having together here?! Oh my gosh!
Our third location was just down the hill but we definitely waded through a lot more snow! But I think it was totally worth it for the view with the barn and the fence! Who else thinks they should be on the front of a Christmas card?!
Location #3 – Secondary Barns at Critz Farms
The smiles and the laughter… that’s one of the best things to bring into marriage! After being married for 8 1/2 years, that’s still one of my very favorite things to do with Andrew… to laugh together!
If you’ve every tried to photograph a small object on a tree branch that keeps swaying in the wind… give it up! I tried and tried until I got smart and found another tree that was sheltered from the wind! I did a lot better focusing on it when the wind wasn’t blowing it around!
Josh and Diane are getting married this coming August in New Jersey which is central to where both of their families will be traveling from!
I just had to end their blog with this picture of Josh spinning Diane! Fun, gracefulness and flexibility are things I know you’ll carry into your marriage! I am SO excited that you plan to stay in the Syracuse area so we can keep in contact and perhaps see each other at church! Thank you so much for giving me this opportunity to capture your love and admiration you have for each other!
If you’d like to see more engagement or wedding blog posts, you can find them at the links provided here! If you’d like to get to know me a bit, you can “meet” Andrew and I who make up Team Hawkins here or shoot me an email here! I’d love to hear from you!
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