My husband doesn’t get to go to work with me often, so it is always a treat when he gets to come along with me on a shoot!  As we drove North from Phoenix to Sedona it is so fun to watch the landscape change so dramatically within just 2 hours! You go from flat lands, to a curving side road that opens up into the most majestic red mountains as you enter Sedona. You have creeks on one side huge plateaus on the other side of the road and its just such a beautiful shift from the normal Phoenix deserts-cape!

I was so excited to get started with Juliana and Paul for their engagement session! They of course looked stunning, but I had also so quickly connected with them the first time we met that I know our time together would be great! And boy was I right! Not only are these two so photogenic together, but they laughed so much and  made the session so fun! The time just flew by as we hiked down to streams and twirled in fields. It was all so perfect and made me so excited for the fall wedding in 2019! Hugs to you Paul and Juliana, thank you for adventuring with me in Sedona and for being so candidly beuatiful together! Can’t wait to see you again soon! – Jenn

Ps; I love getting our couples’ backstory and how they fell in love, so here is some insight into them from our sweet bride Juliana!

“I first knew I was in love him when he was over at my house like three weeks after I had moved home for the summer and he was sitting on my couch. We had started talking at the beginning of May while I was still in Tucson and would talk all day everyday. Then I moved back and after our first date we were inseparable. We were together almost all the time. He was sitting on my couch it was like 2am and we were sitting really close. He was just holding me, we were both really tired but I didn’t want him to leave and I remember looking up at him thinking I don’t ever want this feeling to end and I don’t want him to go so I whispered I love you thinking he wouldn’t hear but I think he did. He just looked at me and didn’t say anything he just kissed me. I remember thinking oh man he heard and he didn’t say it back. I think it read on my face because he told me that he heard me, but he wasn’t going to say it back because he wasn’t sure he felt the same way yet since we just started hanging out and he wanted to wait until he was sure. I remember thinking I’d rather have that then him tell me he love me and not mean it.”

 

  ≈ 

“We were out eating dinner after 4th of July fireworks. She was eating off of my plate as always and just said “I love you” while she was taking a bite of my mashed potatoes. Two days “officially into our relationship” 4th of July was supposed to be the day I was going to ask while watching the fireworks. Juliana was impatient so I had to ask on July 2nd.” – Paul

 

I mean her ring tho!!!!

“Juliana is  the best of both worlds small town and a city girl, with a childish heart. This lets her adapt pretty much any situation and environment. She can feel just as comfortable at a black tie gala as she is at a backyard bbq. I think because she grew up partly in a small town, she can easily make a simple task fun and is never bored because of it. Her childish heart allows her to not take herself so seriously so she’s the one wearing yoga pants driving to the farmers market listening to gangster rap or just in the car singing everything from Sinatra to Luke Bryan to Selena to Cardi B. She lets me choose the restaurants 90% of the time. She deals with me always having to be doing something being out and about, going down every aisle at Costco. Sometimes our weekends are probably just as busy and tiring then during the week. Juliana is my travel buddy, foodie companion and best friend.” – Paul

   “So our proposal story was a surprise! We had gone to look at rings for last few years (we’ve been together for 7 years) just in passing like if we were at the mall we’d go to into Tiffany’s and look. Then I was on Pinterest and saw a Tacori ring so I wanted to see it in person just to see if I’d like it and that was February of 2017 and then we left the store and that was that – didn’t think too much of it. Last fall Paul kept asking which ring I really like and shape of diamond and we went to look again and I couldn’t decide so I just said I love this setting and I like these shapes so you decide. Fast forward to February 2018. He proposed on February 24, 2018. I had been bugging one of my best friends/ cowoker to go do a girl’s day with me and get all dolled up since she really isn’t to that kind of thing I thought it would be fun. She kept saying no. I was sick for a couple days so she came and brought me dinner one night and as she was sitting down she’s like “ok I’m giving you your girl’s day.” I got so excited and suggested that we do it for valentine’s day, but she was insistent on the 24th.  I asked her why and she said “because that’s when I get my taxes.” I just looked at her like “ummm ok” but I decided not to push it because I didn’t want her to change her mind. In between that time, now thinking about it there were lots of signs haha. We are so close that we know each other’s passwords on our phones, and she changed it so I couldn’t get it (because she was texting paul trying to coordinate things), asking me random questions like “if you had a mariachi for an hour what songs would you want” and anytime anyone from work would try to schedule something for me, she’d come out of nowhere and be like “sorry she’s busy.” – Juliana

Anyway, that night she brought me dinner we had decided that we would go on a double date and that’s why were getting dolled up. Paul insisted that we be ready at 4:40pm and leaving the house then. I didn’t understand why and told him that I was not going to go dinner so early so he and Luke (my friends boyfriend) had to plan an “activity”. I came down with the flu the week before and was still sick on the 24th but I was not going to miss the opportunity to have a girls day! So we went and got ready, she kept tryng to take pictures, mind you im like coughing up a lung and left the house at exactly 4:40 and went to our activity. He had rented out the Japanese Friendship Garden and we walked around and he stopped in front of the waterfall, got down on one knee and asked me to be his wife! Then a photographer (Mindy Deluca) jumped out of the bushes, a mariachi came and played my favorite song, my best friend and her boyfriend showed up with our dog, and he ordered a cake that said “she said yes.”

I was stunned as he was asking me! All I remember is he took my hands and said “Mi Amor” and my head “oh man this is happening.” Then he said some other wonderful things that I can’t remember, but I know he has it written somewhere and he was on one with my Tacori ring I had picked out a year before! I immediately starting crying and as he put the ring on my finger the only thing I said “OMG WE’RE GETTING MARRIED.” He has been by side for seven years so the whole thing was so perfect for us and he planned for months was amazing.” – Juliana

“Our first kiss was after our first date in his car. I had been home from school for about a week and he suggested we hang out and go to dinner since we had been “talking” for about three weeks. I said sure. We went on our date, and till this day he says I was over dressed. He was dropping me off at home and we sat in his car talking for about an hour and in the middle of him talking I looked over and pulled him in for the kiss! I had just gotten out of a relationship so I wasn’t looking for anything but he was so easy to talk to and that kiss was so great that my head was fuzzy. So I quickly said goodnight and got out of the car because I was somewhat embarrassed that I had been so forward. But hey it worked out!” – Juliana

“We are complete opposites that balance each other out. Juliana truly takes on the most of compromising like letting me choosing the restaurants to eat at. We want to see each other succeed in our own personal and shared goals” – Paul