When Rashi and Rahul first reached out to me to set up their engagement session, they were having a tough time deciding between two very different locations – Starved Rock State Park, and the city of Chicago. Rahul wanted trees and fall colors, and Rashi wanted tall buildings and the bustling city. They ultimately decided on Chicago, and booked a hotel room downtown and decided to make a weekend of their trip up from Springfield, IL. But then, a slight problem arose – the forecast was suddenly calling for consistent rain on the day of their session, and since Rashi was leaving for India the following week, there was no time to consider rescheduling. We came up with some backup location options, I recruited someone to be on call as a potential umbrella holder for me and my gear, and we hoped for the best.

What we ended up with far exceeded my highest hopes for a session initially involving a ninety percent chance of heavy rain. We started with our indoor backup location since it was raining at the beginning, and then Rashi and Rahul made my day by being willing to go out onto the rooftop, despite the rain. After grabbing an Uber to head down to the loop, the rain ceased, giving us the beautifully overcast, foggy weather it its place. The city felt surprisingly quiet for a Saturday because it had been so dreary, which allowed us to have some of the more popular downtown spots essentially to ourselves – and not only did we get some of that city backdrop, but we also were able to squeeze some fall colors in, too. Rahul and Rashi handled all of the weather calmly and with grace, enjoying themselves and roaming the city regardless, and thus being a part of one of my new all-time favorite engagement sessions – because just like both weddings as well as life in general, sometimes the very best things are the ones that didn’t go as planned.