Amanda + James

April 12, 2022

Engagements

Y’all… I could write a novel about our fall engagement session at Hanging Rock State Park with Amanda + James. Their session reminded me so much of why I love our adventure engagement sessions! Not only do we get so much time to really learn who our couples are, but we also get to travel and explore locations together. This was such a unique and fun session that left us with a wonderful and fond memory. It’s definitely one for the books!!

Amanda + James have a great story that really speaks true to them. Both of these two are pretty extroverted and Amanda in particular loves to go out to bars and dance. On the night they met, Amanda wasn’t looking to meet anyone but her friends convinced her to go out anyways. Amanda dressed down since she didn’t want to be noticed. Much to Amanda’s surprise, she caught James’ attention immediately. After building up some liquid courage James finally went over to chat, but Amanda was actually the first to speak. She told James he had a nice smile and his response was, “Hi, I’m James” with the largest grin he could muster. After chatting all night Amanda gave him her phone number. She honestly expected him not to remember her the next morning. James surprised her again with a text once he woke up and they’ve been inseparable ever since!

As much as these two are introverts, they also love just spending some quality time with them and their family. We bonded over our shared binge watching of Lucifer and The Witcher, but we bonded even further chatting about board games! These two share 4 kids between the two of them and they love spending time just hanging out with each other. After seeing how well their families blended together, James knew he wanted to propose to Amanda. James told Amanda as a joke they would only get married at their 10 year dating anniversary. She was flabbergasted when he asked her to marry him. She actually responded “Yes! Is this for real?!”

Advice For Couples Planning E-Session

Bring a change of shoes! We knew we were going to be hiking so we brought fancy shoes that we carried in a backpack. Hiking in heels would have been difficult! And if you’re planning on going somewhere new then do it – you won’t regret it!!

Amanda always dreamed of having a fall wedding, but unfortunately it wasn’t feasible due to their travel plans. Instead they are having a spring wedding and we brought fall into their engagement session. Several days before their session it was raining and the day of was going to be similar. We literally waited until the morning of to decide to proceed with the original date when the weather said no rain after 10am and Amanda knew she wanted to get the colorful leaves.

I’m glad we stuck to the plan and proceeded with their engagement session! Although the ground was a little soaked, Amanda + James made the absolute most out of their session and we had great weather…. mostly! We were only at the summit for about 15 minutes before a torrential downpour hit us. The rain hit just as we got under the tree canopy so we only got a little damp! We hiked our way down the mountain in the dark with our little head lamps.. It was such a cool experience getting to know Amanda + James while walking down a mountain in the dark!

After the hike we got dinner at Olympic Family Restaurant. We weren’t expecting the food to be spectacular because the menu is like 5 pages long and has every major cuisine type, so we weren’t expecting great quality with so many options. Y’all. Dinner was SO GOOD! We were all blown away by how delicious everything as and I will for sure be going back there whenever I’m in the area!

I really hope you enjoy some of my favorite photos from Amanda + James’ fall engagement session at Hanging Rock State Park below!

James finished helping Amanda over the water and then without prompting dipped her for a kiss! I was blown away and demanded they do it again because I wasn’t ready for the cuteness!