There’s just something about being able to open your wedding keepsake box, the edges smoothed by many hands over time, and pull out prints from your wedding day. Maybe to show your children who want to hear, just one more time, of mommy and daddy’s special day, or maybe just to relive the moments for yourself. The glass vials filled with a piece of lace from your wedding dress, petals from the bouquet, and a special note with a line from your vows.

Digital files are great for facebook, but nothing can replace the beauty of the tangible! If you’re a bride or groom looking for something special to tell your story for generations, this heirloom box might be perfect for you!

Each heirloom box comes with a letterpressed booklet that tells the story of the box from its to creation to the creation of the photographs by the photographer and leaves blank pages for you to add your own part of the two of you!

Handcrafted by the Amish in Ohio, this walnut heirloom box is beautifully made to last for generations and can be personalized with engraving on the lid!

Three vials allow you to store keepsake treasure to help you relive your day! Petals, notes, lace, dirt from the ground where you stood for your vows, perfume on a piece of cloth–the ideas are endless!

They knew who each other were from church and school. Stacy’s brother was even friends with him. To her brother’s utter dismay, she used to tease him by saying that Christian was cute! But it wasn’t until Stacy’s last day of high school that Christian asked her out! I’m sure her brother has gotten over his sister liking a friend, because it’s obvious that Stacy and Christian were meant to be!

With Christian stationed with the Air Force in California, Stacy didn’t think they would be able to have a pictures taken before their Oklahoma wedding. But with emails back and forth, we were able to set up a Tahoe Forest engagement session when she came out to visit!

 

The light was just beautiful coming through the trees!

 

After exploring the forest, we headed down to Scotts Flat Lake!

 

So cute and fun together!

Pulled over to grab some pictures in this phone booth. Love that Stacy and Christian were up for anything and how this turned out!

It was only a few days before the wedding, but we wanted to make sure to still fit in an engagement session to get Taylor and Mike comfortable in front of the camera and just get away from wedding planning for awhile! And I absolutely love the locations they chose!

If you saw Taylor and Mike’s woodland wedding, you couldn’t have missed the little tributes here and there to their first few dates. So it should be no surprise that their engagement session also had to capture and relive some of those sweet memories, especially that second date!

Starting off the night at Rick’s Dessert Diner, they did a little extra cheesecake tasting before their big day!

The cheesecake didn’t last too long

Such a cool place! There was even a working jukebox!

Really, half the time they just hang out, talk, and laugh together!

On their second date they also walked to the comic book store. The owner was so great and let us shoot anywhere!

Loved each of these pictures separately, but thought they were fun put together!

Both Taylor and Mike claim to just be fun-loving nerds, but they could sure work it for the camera!

Sometimes it’s the simple pleasures in life that mean the most. Camping and fishing trips, working around the yard, building a life together… Jessica and Jeff are all about making these kinds of memories together in the Foothills of California. Surrounded by the trees, hills, and overall greenness, they love their life here, and especially each other!

I’m so blessed to be able to have photograph these two! Jessica was the winner of the engagement session giveaway at the Wedding Fair, and did an amazing job at setting up a shoot + location to reflect her and Jeff and their love!

Aren’t her eyes amazing?

So cute together!

Best friends for life–pinky swear.

Such a beautiful location!

Favorite! Just shouts large canvas!

It started over dancing on Friday nights. United as chaperones for her sister and his brother, little did they realize this was also the beginning to their own story. When their siblings were married on a beautiful fall day later that year, Jessica, of course, was maid of honor, and Timothy was the best man.

Life went on, but they continued to see each other around and started meeting up for coffee between college classes. Jessica had liked him from the start, and Timothy wasn’t too far behind in liking her back, so no one was surprised when they announced their relationship! Then just nine months later while on their way up to Tahoe for a family trip, a stop for Peet’s coffee led Timothy to propose, and she said yes!

Jessica and Timothy, your wedding is going to be amazing! Filled with family, friends, good coffee, and dancing…but most importantly, the start of a new chapter in your story!

Typical dates for Jessica and Timothy included exploring new towns and sampling out their coffee and chai. Calistoga is the home of one of their little, favorite coffee shops, Calistoga Roastery.

Their own special way of holding hands

Hoping to catch the last bit of daylight, we made the drive out to Sebastapol to the pretty naturesque setting at

Don’t forget to bring your dancing shoes to the wedding!

Can you tell she’s a trained dancer?

One thing you notice right away about Jessica is that she’s always smiling! Her heart is overflowing with infectious joy that just radiates from her face!

There’s a sweetness and lightness to their relationship. Like they have a secret of their very own. But I think anyone looking at them can tell what it is. They’re in love. ;-)