Kasey + Madison
June 11th, 2023
A long summer ago, I was searching for a canoe to rent for specific photo shoots I had in mind. I wasn't finding any luck when I ran across this guy on Facebook Marketplace trying to SELL his! After a short time of convincing my husband I absolutely needed this canoe, we met up with the guy to purchase it. The canoe was the normal hunter green you see them painted in but I knew I wanted it to be a little more elegant. That day me and a friend, Mona, spent HOURS SPRAY PAINTING this massive canoe! Mind you the canoe is about 125lbs and is 16.5 feet long... After 15 odd cans of spray paint and 2 cans of enamel, and half a night (yep, we painted it in the dark..) it was finally finished and I am OBSESSED with how it turned out!
The waiting was killing me!
I was dying to get this beauty in the water with an adorable couple inside to tie everything in perfectly! I posted to my SM pages that I was looking for a model couple to be adventurous and sit inside of a canoe on the water. I got just that! Madison reached out to me very interested so we planned her session for June 11, 2023. LITTLE DID SHE KNOW, her world was about to change!
Shortly after booking, Kasey emailed me from my website sharing his plans of proposing during their session! I was over the top at the fact I had the honors to photograph this very special moment. After planning it all out and making sure we had the right timing down, we waited for the day to come!
The perfect day.
The day of their session the weather was absolutely gorgeous. Sun shining, birds singing, grass growing.. just typing this now makes me want to go back to that summer day! It was a long one though, with the suspense of what was bound to happen later that evening just lingering. My best friend, Chelsey, actually decided to come along with me to video this precious moment so when the time came we headed out with the canoe! Now, the place we had in mind for this session was South Riverside Park with the tennis court and river docks. It was perfect, although, you had to walk up this (what seemed to be) big hill to get down to the docks and carrying a 125lb 16.5ft long canoe up that hill and down was NOT fun! However, because we are strong independent business women, we managed to get it down in the water!
When Kasey and Madison arrived I tried my best to pretend it was a completely normal day for a session! I complimented their outfits (she chose them perfectly imo) and asked them a few questions I like to ask all of my clients during the beginning! How long have you been dating, who asked who out first, what's your favorite thing to do together, etc. Our original plan for Kasey's proposal was for them to be IN the canoe when he proposed but knowing they would both be nervous already being inside a canoe on the water, we decided the dock would be the safest! So, we started in the canoe! I like to start with the most comfortable poses to allow the couples to warm up to the camera and relax so I had Madison sit on the bottom and lean into Kasey. This was a super simple pose that could get a lot of variety of images! Far away, close ups, them kissing, them looking away.. After switching them up in the canoe I decided it was time. When they got out of the canoe we did a few standing poses in hopes it wouldn't make Madison suspicious of anything, and then I said... "now go ahead and turn away from each other, like back to back and look away into the distance.." Kasey knew IMMEDIATELY it was time! He pulled the ring out to get a few shots and as I stepped back I told Madison to turn and face him!! Her reaction was the most genuine and sweetest reaction! Tears of joy, nervously laughing, running up for a hug... everything was just perfect! After a lot of congratulations we finished the session doing some ring shots so they could show it off to family and friends! The pictures turned out so beautiful and they absolutely loved them. Enjoy the amazing couple below!
