Personal || Knoxville, TN Photographer || 2016 Favorite Engagements

I am so so excited to share my favorite engagement pictures from 2016 with you today! In case you missed it, I have already shared my favorite portraits from 2016 here. You can also see my 2015 favorite portraits, engagements and weddings that I shared with you about a year ago. Just like all of those posts, I am going to also include some of my favorite moments from 2016 engagement sessions below:

1. At the VERY beginning of this year, almost a year ago exactly, I had two couples tell me that they really wanted snow pictures. As many of you know, living in Knoxville does not necessarily lend itself to having photos done in the snow. We usually only get about 1-2 good snows a winter and even then, it’s usually accompanied by ice which prevents us from being able to drive on these rolling hills in it. But God had a different plan for these couples. Just a couple weeks after having these conversations, we got a big snow. A big, beautiful snow, that we were actually prepared for, so all the roads were salted and able to be driven on. It just so happened that both myself, and each of the couples were able to be flexible on that particular day and we got amazing engagement photos in the snow! It was our last snow of the season and it was about 4 inches, which was our prettiest snow of the season. I LOVE looking back at those snow engagement pictures… they were some of my favorites all season! See each of these engagement sessions here and here.
2. Proposals are so much fun to shoot… but unfortunately, it’s not usually in the budget to hire a professional photographer to capture the moment, slash, dudes aren’t usually thinking about that when they’re planning their whole proposal moment. Over my 6 year career as a professional wedding photographer, I have only shot a handful of proposals… until this year. I got to shoot THREE. The first one was of another photographer couple who live in Maryland and were coming to Gatlinburg for a little getaway. This photographer couple now run Costola Photography and are incredible!! You can see the entire blog post on their proposal here. After lots and lots of planning, we finally made it to the day and there was snow on the trail and the most beautiful backdrop for his proposal. The second one was in Market Square, one of my favorite parts of Knoxville. This one was totally different than the last. Instead of it just being the two of them back in the mountains, this one came with over 60 friends and family gathered to greet the girl along her downtown path to her guy and then to their family’s home to celebrate all evening. See more of this one here. Then finally, the third and last, was in Chattanooga on a riverboat! This one was a perfect mixture of the two past proposals. The guy proposed in a secluded area of the ship before they joined 30 of their closest friends and family to celebrate with dinner. See this one here! All of this to say that I have never photographed so many proposals and it has been AMAZING! I hope that this is a trend that guys are picking up on and will continue to hire a photographer for because let me tell ya, most girls want it… and it would be super impressive to them if you thought of it as part of your proposal plan!
3. The last favorite moment that came out of 2016 engagement pictures was a couple that hired me to shoot mini engagement sessions in each season with them! Check out their winter, spring, summer and fall sessions! This was the first time that I had done this, or even been approached about doing this, but it was really super freaking cool. Not only did I get to work with the couple four separate times, but we got to have the best of all four seasons. Often people ask me what my favorite season is to shoot, but honestly I love them all.  If I had to choose a least favorite, it would probably be summer, only because of the heat, but even then, I really enjoy the late evenings because the sun is going down so much later than any other time of the year. I love the snow in the winter and the evergreens that stand out so much more when all the other trees are bare. I love the spring flowers that are so vibrant and pastelly and the first color of the year, and then of course everyone loves fall. Perfect temperatures, beautiful colors… probably my favorite part about fall are the colors that people wear. Deep rich tones that compliment my style of editing. So this year after I completed all four seasons with this couple, I got asked by one of my 2018 brides if we could do it with them next and of course I said yes! I am SO excited to start on this journey with them!!

So that’s it. That’s my 2016 best moments for engagement pictures. Now that you’ve gotten through that, it’s time to enjoy some scrolling!!