Alex and Andrea both grew up in the Chicagoland area and went to Northern Illinois University, but they wouldn’t meet until years later when their paths crossed at a bar in Wrigleyville. I love hearing these how-we-met stories from couples, because I get to meet and observe them at a time when they’ve already done so much growing and learning and loving since that initial meeting – when they are planning their wedding, and share a love for their dog, and are working through the rises and falls of adulthood together.
We attempted to schedule Alex and Andrea’s engagement session multiple times prior to this day – but life, and work, and the weather had us continually rescheduling for a few months. So when I was looking at my calendar + the forecast for what would be our final reschedule and saw that February 14th was expected to be the warmest, sunniest day of the upcoming week, I sent an email to Alex and Andrea. I fully expected them to pick one of the other date options because, I thought, “what couple wants to spend their Valentine’s Day with a third wheel in tow who has a camera in their faces?” But instead, my internal wish for them to pick that date was granted, and I met the two of them downtown on Valentine’s Day.
It was still chilly despite the sunlight, but these two were absolute troopers from the moment we started. As they stood in front of me together and we chatted, I told them how happy I was that they chose this date for their session, and how I would have understood their hesitations if they didn’t want to spend Valentine’s Day with their photographer.
“But honestly, what could be a more romantic way to spend it than doing our engagement photos? Alex exclaimed earnestly, as he smiled at Andrea and wrapped his arms around her.
And that’s when I realized that Alex was completely right – it doesn’t get much better than celebrating your engagement, keeping each other warm, looking into each others’ eyes for a little bit longer than usual, and spending a few hours simply roaming the city the two of you fell in love in.
