Scott & Abby

It's taken more self control than I knew I possessed to not blog this session earlier. But after being a patient little...possum?!, it makes me so happy to finally share this couple with the world. Last month Scott and Abby met me on a sunny Central Oregon afternoon for an engagement session that ranks as one my favorites. Ever. I've spent a great deal of time with these photos and yet every time I see them I'm left with the same sense of life and joy. Scott and Abby are somuchfun to be around. And while they repeatedly let me know they were nervous to have their photos taken, I think it's clear they were pure naturals in front of the camera. The love these two share is so sweet and natural that it has a way of making everyone around them comfortable - yours truly included. Their engagement pictures can't help but make me smile, leaving me to wish their September wedding was just wee bit closer. Scott and Abby...sigh. It's simple, really. I just like you guys. You're so fun and great and ridiculously good looking that sometimes I wonder why on earth you're so kind and generous to hang out with me (but I'm SO happy you do!). Thank you for asking me to be part of your wedding story and congrats on the start of forever. I've no doubt your big day is going to be perfectly perfect - just like you!

xoxo, Michelle

Hey Abby, stoppppp it.

Swoon.

Jessie & Alan

It is possible that it's the way he'll look at her and always seem to smile just as she smiles. Or it could be the way she'll turn noticeably giddy in his presence. It's the way their love for the outdoors and mountainous landscape is rivaled only by their love for one another. Or the way he'll wait, with the patience of a saint, as Jessie makes sure her dress, and her hair, look just so. Whatever it is, Jessie and Alan have a sweet kind of love. The type of love that feels childlike and new, yet all the while seems to have been around forever. They're a joy to know and their relationship, ever full of laughter, is pure bliss to be around. Jessie and Alan, I think you're both quite wonderful. From the bottom of my heart I'm sending you the biggest congratulations on this exciting adventure of getting engaged and planning a wedding. Your pictures? Well, I hope they say it all. You are two beautiful, kind, sweet individuals who are so perfectly perfect together.

Lots of love, Michelle

Jessie & Alan's engagement session was at the Betsy Johnson estate in Camp Sherman - the same venue where they'll be married this summer. To say it was a dream to shoot at would be quite the understatement...

The Dress...

It was hard to not include these photos in Matt + Kelsi’s wedding post, but I really felt they deserved a spotlight of their own. The moment when a girl slips into her wedding dress is emotional and surreal and monumental and marks a huge turn in the course of her life. Far more than just another day of getting dressed, it’s slipping into the dress that will lead a girl to marriage and wifedom. It's a room full of generations of women zipping and buttoning and twisting and tightening, all the while kissing and crying and comforting and assuring that the road ahead, while hard at times, is a beautiful one. It’s a moment that has only been dreamed of for years - replayed in a young girl’s mind over and over and over again… And finally, in the midst of sisters and mothers and grandmothers and any women who hold value in her life, it’s the moment a girl becomes a bride.