So who doesn’t love sunflowers in October?  Not just sunflowers, but a sunflower maze?!!  When Kelsey first emailed me about photographing her engagement session in the Fall, we discussed many possibilities.  But then when we talked about Snead’s Asparagus Farm, that was all she needed to know…pumpkins, wooly asparagus and SUNFLOWERS.  It was absolutely perfect. 

Kelsey must be one of my biggest social media cheerleaders and when I met her in person, I could see how blessed I was to have her watching my work and gleaning ideas.  I thoroughly enjoyed spending the evening with she and Mitchell as I learned more about their love story and their wedding plans…all while exploring one of my favorite new location sin Fredericksburg. 

Kelsey and Mitchell are planning an April wedding next year at the Loews Portofino Bay Hotel in Florida in the incredible Villa Piazza. It’s a beautiful outdoor area near the gardens, with a lovely, charming gazebo. Their wedding and honeymoon will all be in the same place…which sounds delightfully stress free to me!  While I won’t be there to photograph the wedding, we are hoping for a sweetheart session next summer in Virginia!

Kelsey and Mitchell met while in high school. They were in the same English class, and for a group project, the class was sorted into small groups based on the result of a personality test that they had taken previously. Mitch and Kelsey ended up being put into the same personality group and that’s how they started talking. Kelsey remembers being dubbed the “Green Group.” They became close friends almost immediately and spent as much of their spare time together as possible. Kelsey says that she loved being around him; he had such a positive way about him. He both laughed and made people laugh so easily, and was one of those people that befriended everyone.  and I can vouch for this too, as I quickly could tell during the engagement session that he and Kelsey were both like this!

Kelsey also thought (and still does!) that he was just the most handsome guy ever. He was a bit shy about asking her out on an official date, so Kelsey ended up asking him out on the first date because she was tired of just being friends! Their first date was at Cox Farm’s haunted festival on October 2nd, 2010. The next morning he texted her asking “So are you my girlfriend now?” and she replied “Um, yeah!,”…and the rest is history! 

So when I asked Kelsey about their proposal story, she shared with me that they didn’t really have a standard proposal story like most couples. Awww, Kelsey!  Everyone has a story and so do you and it’s precious and it’s yours!  Getting married was something that they had been increasingly talking about and they kept saying that they couldn’t wait to marry each other.  When the knew it was time, they started casually looking at venues at the same time they had started to  seriously look into buying a home, and decided they would much rather spend the money on a house rather than a wedding. Feeling stuck on what exactly to do, Kelsey began booking a vacation to Orlando, Florida for April.  One of the hotels they liked is modeled after an Italian town, and she thought “now that is a venue!” So she started poking around their website and found out that, yes they do weddings, and they also offer elopement packages. She was immediately  sold on the idea, so she showed Mitch and jokingly said “wouldn’t it be so great to elope while we are on vacation!?” and he agreed. As Kelsey said, he “adamantly agreed!” She then said that he “…told me to hold on for a second, ran upstairs, and came back down with a ring for me! I guess he had already been planning on proposing at some point anyway!”

Kelsey and Mitchell, I had an amazing time with you and am so excited to see images from your wedding day as well!!!!  Congratulations and thank you for the honor of photographing your engagement session!