Alyson and Craig Engaged

Alyson and Craig

There is no place I would rather be this morning than having a picnic outside with Mr Polka. Apart from the obvious working day it is also no weather to leave the warmth of the heater, which is why I thought today’s shoot might help us drift away to summer days! It comes all the way from Austin, Texas!

Today’s shoot is by Sweet Caroline Photography. We all know I love to get the couple to do the talking so here are Alyson’s words on the engagement shoot.

“Craig and I love LOVE love the outdoors so we knew that we wanted to have our pictures taken outside in a field or in the woods but weren’t sure exactly where we wanted to do it. The weekend before our session with Caroline, we were on our way to go rock climbing out at Reimer’s Ranch, not too far from Austin. We were so busy talking with my younger sister that we completely missed our turn. We didn’t even realize it until 40 minutes down the road when we noticed that we should have already arrived. My sister looked up our location on her iphone- oops. Rather than back-tracking, we decided to take the small country roads to the park. What we found was beautiful: rolling hills and huge open fields with beautiful oak trees. Spring wildflowers covered the landscape and we saw a spot that had no fences or gates keeping us from getting out of the car and walking around. We immediately agreed that we had found our location for the engagement session.

All of the things that we brought told a little something about us – the picnic things (1920s quilt and kitchen scale) were things that I had picked up in antique shops in Vermont with my mother. One of the vases was my grandmother’s. The motorcycle was Craig’s parents from the 70s. They each had one and would ride around on them when they first got married. We brought the books which represent what we spend our days doing at work: French without Toil (this book was my father’s when he was my age) since I am a French teacher, and College Mathematics since Craig is a geophysicist.

The wooden ring: When Craig proposed, he did it with this beautiful Brazilian rosewood ring that he carved himself. He had ordered several different samples of wood and spent time here and there over a period of 4 months carving it. He said he wanted to propose with a ring, but he wanted me to get to choose what I would want as a wedding ring, so he carved this one. I love it more than anything I could have chosen myself.”

Photos by Sweet Caroline Photography.