I had photographed both Anastasia and Jordan in the past, as they had both been in wedding parties of weddings I had shot in years prior. Anastasia contacted me excitedly soon after they were engaged, and my excitement matched hers as we discussed their tentative wedding plans and made plans of our own to consider me their photographer as soon as they set a date. Once they met with venues and did so, Anastasia contacted me excitedly again, announcing that they were officially ready to move forward with the booking process.

I felt myself grimace at the computer screen as I read the date they had chosen, realizing in that moment that I had just recently booked a different wedding on that date. Anastasia and I shared each other’s disappointment that it wouldn’t work out, but there was nothing we could do – I referred her to other photographers in the area, and told her to reach out if she needed help with anything else.

Months passed, and one day, I received an email from the other bride, the one who had booked the date that Anastasia and Jordan were hoping to secure with me. This bride and her fiancé had decided to move their wedding date up six months – so, not only did I have the new date she was looking for available, but I also had the June date free that Anastasia and Jordan were originally hoping for. I couldn’t believe it, as this rarely happens – but I tapered my rising excitement as I realized that Anastasia and Jordan had likely booked a different photographer by now. I sent them an email to fill them in on the news, fully expecting them to say they had booked someone else in the meantime – instead, I received this response from Anastasia: “I literally just jumped out of my chair! I have not booked anyone yet because I have been having a gut feeling not to do it just yet! It’s truly meant to be!!!” – we then exchanged a number of overly excited messages, full of screen shots of her conversation with Jordan and all the exclamation points. It’s not often that I can claim that it feels like fate for me to photograph a particular wedding or couple, but for this one, it certainly feels a lot like that.

Anastasia and Jordan’s engagement session was exactly how I had hoped it would be, and exactly how they are as a couple – laid back and effortlessly fun. We incorporated the car that has been in Anastasia’s family for years at our first location, then made our way out to Lake Camelot, to the lakeside backyard where she had spent her childhood. During our session, Anastasia wasn’t worried about how her hair was holding up in the August heat, instead telling me that her big Greek hair does whatever it wants. And when we decided to end their session with them getting in the lake and I asked Jordan if he was okay with that, he instead laughed it off and said “this is nothing, I’ve done weirder”. And so they got into a canoe, and waded into the water in their clothes, and cracked up and loved on one another as the sunset started to put on a show. Jordan and Anastasia are people who embrace the weird and the goofy, the messy and the beautiful unexpectedness of life, and it’s qualities like that that remind me of how lucky I am going to be to photograph their big day.