David Abel Photography

I had such a great shooting with these two in C’Ville at their wedding venue, and the rain held off just enough so that we could get some quick portraits. Running from spot to spot we were able to get some fun and relaxed portraits. I can’t wait to work with these two for their wedding. Here are some of my favorites as well as their engagement story in their own words.

“PJ had arranged for us to go our for a nice dinner in Washington DC where he was going to propose and had then got us tickets for the Nutcracker. I, of course had no idea, and got held up a work. Traffic was awful so I ended up being late. I called him and asked him whether we should even go? He must have loved that:). He grabbed me a change of clothes and we met halfway there. I ended up changing in his car and we just made it in time for the show. The show was awesome (one of my favorites as a kid) and then we went out for a nice dinner in the city. When we got home, he told me that I had a present waiting for me under our Christmas tree. We went inside and there was a card under the tree. I opened it and he got down on one knee and proposed – it was perfect! It was December 22nd and we were heading to Canada the next day so I got to surprise my friends and family with our engagement.”

-David-

I had such a great time with this couple just taking it easy and walking all around The Mill at Fine Creek. Quick to laugh and have a good time we were able to easily take some great photos. Here are a few of my favorites as well as their engagement story in their own words.

“Every spring I (Jeff) go up to Pittsburgh to catch a couple of baseball games, as I’m a Pirates fan. This year I had bought tickets to take Sarah-Anne with me. We’d been talking about getting engaged for some time, she’d picked out a setting and knew that I’d been over to visit the jeweler a number of times, but she thought that our weekend up in PA would be too “obvious” a time to propose, and since I’m usually pretty contrary, she didn’t think I’d ask her that weekend. I knew of a really pretty public park out at the city point where the 3 rivers meet, and so I’d planned on taking her there and proposing next to the fountain at the edge of the park. However, when we reached the park, we found the entire place under renovation, with chain link fences everywhere — you couldn’t even get down to the water’s edge, and the entire fountain area had been unearthed. However, there was still a really pretty grassy area in the middle of the park that we could walk around, and so we eventually settled down underneath a tree there. I started talking about how I’d planned on going down by the water’s edge and talking to her about the rivers, the two smaller ones forming the larger Ohio, and she’s looking at me with an expression that says “what in the world are you talking about?” Anyway, I fumbled around for a bit longer, completely flustered by the way my plan had collapsed, but eventually wound up on one knee. And of course, she said yes.”

-David-

This was an exceptionally fast paced engagement session as we didn’t know if it would rain the very next second or not. However, the rain was able to hold off for us so that we could finish the session and grab some great shots. I really loved what we got from this session, here are some of my favorites as well as Sarah & James’ engagement story in their own words:

James and I began our evening at the MCV Jefferson Ball. I had just finished a time-consuming rotation at the hospital so I could not wait to spend a fun evening with him. We had talked about engagement, but he had thrown me off track the previous week by telling me \”I don\’t even have a ring yet\”. Well that evening in February, we had a spectacular evening at the MCV Jefferson Ball. When we got home, James insisted we have a glass of wine on the roof to enjoy the view. It was after midnight in February so the last thing I wanted to do was have a glass of wine outside in 30 degree air! I pouted and said I did not want to go and put on my PJs! He continued to insist and I finally sharpened up and figured this could be it! And sure enough…we got up to the roof and within seconds, James was down on one knee proposing to me while I wore my giant poofy down jacket! We did not stay on the roof much longer, but I was sure glad we went up there!

-David-