Images:Â Imani Fine Art Photography
Did you all have a good weekend? Yesterday was gorgeous! Andy & I got some relaxing in and were mostly up to our eyeballs in all things baby prep. Now that we know how to swaddle we officially feel ready (well pending Andy making me the ultimate labor music playlist ;) so I guess it’s just a waiting game from here! I plan to blog as much as I can up to whenever this little guy or gal arrives and will keep you posted on when I will return to blogging as well. But in the meantime let’s get to today’s adorable engagement pictures thanks to Nadiya of Imani Fine Art Photography. She sent me the beautiful engagement session & love story of Grace & Ben. Check it out and HAPPY MONDAY!
From the photographer:
Grace and Ben are an awe-inspiring couple. They are quirky, down to earth and deserve to be featured for they are the real deal times a million. They’re both from the D.C. area, and I’m based out of Richmond, so they planned a night stay in the lovely historic city in order to do engagement shoots with me that evening. As fate would have it took them a crazy 5+ hours to even get to Richmond from D.C. #justno. On top of everything it got mad cloudy and rainy, and I was actually supposed to go out of town right after the shoot! Tragedy? A cancellation? Nope, alas we made it work. I postponed my trip, and we planned a sunrise shoot at Libby Hill park overlooking the city.
Before our shoot I got a chance to chat with them, and I knew right away that we would be friends. Grace is a high school English teacher, and Ben left a life of finance to start his own catering company up in D.C.: B.Lin Catering. He totally stepped out on faith and has been crazy successful, I loved it. We sat on my wide southern porch in the misty rain and just got to know each other a little better. Grace told me the back story about the engagement ring that I seriously could not stop starring at.
Click inside for the rest of Grace & Ben’s adorable Richmond, VA engagement pictures!
It was awesome, unique and wonderfully vintage. It belonged to Ben’s grandmother who sadly passed last year. It had meant so much, that Ben’s mother wanted Grace to have it. So beautiful, so moving. Talk about an awesome future mother in law. And I’m not one to get crazy over diamonds, but this ring was so special. It was rooted in family history and love. And that is what Grace and Ben are: Love.
During our shoot, at 7am on a Saturday mind you! they were goofy, fun and lively. There were so easy to spend time with and to photograph. I graduated from VCU arts with a BFA in Photography and definitely take a more organic and free flowing approach. So the dynamic totally worked. I gained a sense about them, and worked to portray their love and feeling through the images.
Grace and Ben are special, and I made sure their images were too. I let them be who they are, and simply worked to capture their authenticity. It was a little cold that early, and their natural snug and affection was enough to warm anyone’s heart. They were playful, and happy. So full of laughter and intimacy. Anyone looking on could tell they were not only a super dope couple, but they were also best friends. Their laid back nature, and simply genuine hearts made me so grateful to have met them and gotten to know them. They both had not spent much time in Richmond before, and being known for its food my boyfriend and I took our new friends to Brunch at the famous Millie’s Diner in our neighborhood: Church Hill. We drank mimosas and talked away the morning.
