Oh my. Where do I even start?!

This is a very special post to me. It involves part of what we did over the summer and why we were gone. Denton and I went to New York to volunteer at a bible education center in Wallkill, where bibles are printed. We were part of the support services, so Denton was on the beef farm and I got to be in the orchard on the harvest crew. We had such a wonderful time!

New York is so very different from Montana. There are tons of trees and flowers and greenery and bubbling little streams everywhere. It is very picturesque. There are also a lot more people in New York. With a 2014 population density of 419 people per square mile, there are more people in a 14 mile stretch of road than the number of people that live in Roosevelt county in Montana combined. Yikes!

While harvesting, you have the whole day to talk and get to know one another, so I was able to meet so many wonderful people- and Zulema was one of them! What a sweetheart! She has such a sweet, loving manner that I wanted to be her friend right away!

Hearing her story and the challenges she has faced, and continue to face, deeply impressed me. Her determination, integrity and moral character, combined with her sweet manner, are all wrapped up in one pretty package!

After nearly a month of getting to know her, I knew that her fiance was going to be an amazing guy, as well. Needless to say, I was pretty thrilled to get to shoot their engagement pictures!

We met up for their session and drove together to a beautiful lake in the area with gorgeous views and beautiful light. It was great to get to use that time driving to get to know Leo, too, before our session! After just a short time and seeing them together, it made us so happy to see these two wonderful people matched up and starting their lives together- with forever in front of them!

Despite a little bit of worry about having enough daylight, the day ended up being perfect, and we had such a wonderful time on this shoot. We were able to go to a couple different locations and got some pretty amazing photos!

None of us had time for supper beforehand, so we had packed a cooler in advance. After our session, we found a good spot and had our picnic supper while being able to relax and visit more after our session.

That was a rare treat and the highlight of our time with them!

We are so happy that we got to meet them, and we CANNOT wait for their wedding in November- which we will be flying back to New York to shoot!

Until then, here are some of my favorite photos from that day that tell the beginning of their story…