Jess is one of my GIRLS. I had mentioned in a post below about my girlfriends, that we were all there but “little Miss NY”….well this is her, the gal who left us, to go find herself in the big city. What she ended up finding was something unexpected-the love of her life, who just so happens to be from Cincinnati as well (cool huh?). And let me just tell you…we all approve :) He has passed all tests with flying colors, and although I have only had the chance to meet him a couple times, the love he has for my friend is just OOZING from him. That’s pretty awesome.

Tony had something really fun concocted for the night of our session. Jess and I had been planning the pictures for a few weeks, even before the official “proposal” had happened. They knew they were getting married and were already making plans. They were just missing the “formality” aspect. The ring was coming, but it was taking some time to be made. The week before our session, Tony contacted me and told me about his plans. He told Jess the ring wouldn’t be ready until sometime in June. Although she was worried about not having the ring for her engagement pictures, this was the only weekend they would be in town until the wedding, so we had to do the session. When she called me asking if that was stupid, I just said, “Ah, no problem! Who needs a ring for engagement photos…seriously.” I knew all along that Tony was planning to take her to a beautiful overlook of Cincinnati in Eden Park and propose to her minutes before we met them. Although they are both from Cincy, their memories together are in New York. So as part of his proposal he made a movie of himself in one of their special places, listing all the reasons he was so crazy about her and how special she is to him. Then he proposed to her. We arrived about 2 minutes afterwards with Jess still all teary eyed.

On cloud 9.

so so happy and in love….

She has such GORGEOUS eyes.

Tony’s only request: chucks shots. :)

Proving he would do anything for her…

So beautiful. :)

Then, another surprise!! A BIGGER surprise. While doing the barb wire shots above Tony says, “Hey lets go do some shots up in Mt. Adams!”  We knew that was the cue, so we headed up there.  Little did Jess know that Tony had ALLLLL of their family and many friends waiting to congratulate them inside of an awesome (yet tiny) pub called the Blind Lemon.  She was so surprised.  It made my heart happy that everything worked out so perfectly for them.

J + T, we can’t wait for your wedding in about 3 months!  It is going to be just beautiful, and Jess you are going to be one of the most gorgeous brides ever.  Tony, we are so glad Jess found someone who loves and appreciates her whole heartedly, and we can’t wait to get to know you more and more. :) Much love you guys!!!

~Jess & Brett

Trying to nail down a time to do Annie and Westin’s engagement session was rather difficult because of their work schedules, but with less than a month before the wedding, we knew we needed to act fast. Annie chose the one night they had free, which happened to be her birthday. The day came and was beautiful!! Blue skies, 70 degrees, and lovely warm sunshine…that is until about 5:00 in the evening, when a hard downpour began. Annie began to worry and we prayed would let up, but it never did. We met, and decided that we HAD to shoot, and as completely against our norm as it was, we went indoors, at night, in the beautiful Hilton Cincinnati Netherlands Plaza. The images are much more moody than our normal work, but the look really exemplifies the personality of these two….they are fun, artsy, and eccentric.

Annie put on this beautiful black dress and turned it up a notch…

When we meet them later in the week to discuss wedding plans, we decided to snap a few photos as the sun was going down. We ended up loving them! :)

I have know these two for a long time. Wes is the little brother of one of my good friends from school and I have know him since he was around 6 or 7, and Annie is one of my sister’s best friends since Jr. High. I was so happy when they chose us to do their engagement and wedding photography because I know photography is really important to them. Annie and Westin, thanks for choosing us, and we can’t wait for the wedding in a few weeks!!

Last but not least, I had to put in a photo to really show their super fun personalities. :) As goofy as they are (or I should really say as goofy as Westin is), it is so evident how crazy they are about each other. That makes our job even more fun. Being able to capture the LOVE. :)