To think two years from our first date we would be spending that weekend in the mountains with uninterrupted quality time, hiking, laughing, and taking our engagement portraits leaves me speechless. You can read more about the hiking part of our trip at Wintergreen here. Cory is a man that I did not realize existed, until I met him and shortly after, fell in love with him! I love telling people how we met because it is much more than going on a date from match.com (even though that is exactly what it sounds like, when I begin our story.)

Meeting Cory felt like finding the missing piece, actually more like the entire other half of my life! It was a quiet thought to myself, “Well there you are.” He quickly became the person that I knew was going to take on life with me and spend it celebrating, making memories and working out all of the parts of life together. Everything that he has improved in me and my life does not go unnoticed, from making me feel loved every day to encouraging me to be a better business owner. He is the guy that will dance with me in the kitchen when we(he) is cooking dinner, but will also sit down with me and design my website, proofread guides that I make for my brides and will listen to anything that I want to talk about. He is the listening ear that everyone deserves but he is also the person that will participate in everything to make an activity become a great memory to cherish! Everyone deserves a person like Cory, but this one in particular is taken! 😉

This quote makes me think of Cory, “I believe in love at first sight but I will always believe that the people we love we have loved before. Many, many, many times before and we stumble through grace and circumstance and that brilliant illusion of choice to finally meet them again, we feel it faster each time through. The one glance that set life alight is two sets of two eyes staring through the layers of lifetimes and stolen glances and first kisses and hands held; the brace against the weight and unrelenting tide of waiting. I believe in love at first sight but am not burdened with the misconception that it is a first sight at all.” – Tyler Knott Gregson

Erika Mills took our engagement portraits at Carter Mountain Apple Orchard. We wanted to go to the mountains for our portraits and be at an apple orchard, because some of our favorite memories are when we are in the mountains together and last fall we went apple picking together. After our outfit change the rain came, and since we traveled all that way, we photographed through it! You will see my hair got a little crazy, but I am a wedding photographer and I have learned many things about weddings, couples and wedding photography over the past several years, and not letting RAIN get you down and out is one of those things! I can’t wait to pick our portrait for our Save the Dates and get those sent out to our families and friends! Thank you so much Erika for taking the time to get to know us, to photograph us out of town in an element that was important to us and dealing with having a wedding photographer as a bride!  Foster’s hair gets frizzy in the rain, just like his Mom! 🙂   The dogs didn’t mind the rain either!   I want this one as a big canvas in our home!!!!