Capitol Hill, Library of Congress and a real life movie moment– you won’t want to Miss Jessica & Mike’s Washington DC engagement session…
Jessica shared, “When we were trying to pick our wedding venue, we googled wedding photos of our venue, The Carnegie Institution for Science. We fell in love with a few different images and were stunned when tracing them back to their original website, they were *all yours*!”
She continued, “We loved that your photos were vibrant and really captured the feeling of the moment and the personalities of the couples. We also enjoyed the unexpected artsy elements featured in various photos. When it came time to pick a wedding photographer you were our #1 pick and we were thrilled you were available for our date!”
It was raining cats and dogs during their engagement session date, so we went with meeting at their Plan B location, the Library of Congress, and we were lucky enough to miss the downpour and totally take advantage of the dramatic stormy skies, interesting lighting and stunning architecture of the Library of Congress…
Jessica shared, “Mike and I found ourselves in a bit of a cat and mouse game for the first one and a half to two years we knew each other. We had met via a DC Professionals Birthright Trip in Israel. When we got back to DC a group of us regularly got together for various things like brunches, trivia nights, movies, and volunteer events. After each event, Mike and I often found ourselves immersed in conversation and would stroll to a park or coffee shop to continue to chat. Being with him felt so natural; even from the very beginning.”
I love how natural they look here and the visual interest of the yellow lines and yellow flowers– it gives it a bit of a downtown vibe…
Mike agreed saying, “Our relationship started with lengthy pauses between each date and grew to be where even a single day without at least talking to each other seemed a like a day lost. We are able to find fun in any activity we do and can always make each other laugh. She has the greatest smile, most sincere personality, and I couldn’t be any happier to be spending the rest of my life with her.”
That sky– also if you look closely there are three birds flying overhead…
Jessica laughed, “December 2014, one whole year after our first date, Mike and I went on what we like to call our ‘second first date.’ ”
I love to play with different visual elements and thought Jessica on tip toes and the kissing shadows were so sweet…
Jessica added, “It’s funny, Mike later informed me that following our ‘second first date,’ he promised himself he wouldn’t go a day without talking to me or a week without seeing me. Lucky for us, his last plan finally worked!”
As we strolled around the Capitol Building and Library of congress I noticed the warm sunlight hitting a colorful area of the garden. I love to “stack” visual elements together– here I was able to have vibrant flowers in the foreground and a beautiful tree in the background…
I loved how iconic DC this photograph was…
Michael shared, “We love interesting architecture, especially buildings with an old world look, but also wanted to capture some of quintessential DC in our engagement photos. Thus the Capital building and Library of Congress Jefferson building fit the bill, perhaps even better than we realized. We started out the shoot in front of the Capital building which is definitely classic DC. Then as we started to make our way to the Library of Congress, we found ourselves pointing out all sorts of old world European symmetry.”
He went on, “At some point we even mentioned it felt as though we had taken a quick flight to Paris for the evening. It was amazing that we were able to get such distinct and different vibes with each backdrop. On our way home from the shoot, we curiously looked up the inspiration for the building finding its design was based on the Paris Opera House and the fountain out front was inspired by the Trevi fountain in Rome. Even the Capitol Dome was inspired by the Pantheon in Paris.”
For me this not only looks Parisian, but also reminds me a bit of the Oscar winner, LaLa Land…
This one reminded me of An American in Paris, I love Jessica’s expression and how natural these two look…
Jessica and Mike, I’m so glad we were able to squeeze in your engagement photos prior to your upcoming Carnegie Institution for Science wedding this fall!! I’m so excited to hear what you think of these!