It was such a joy capturing Jenlain & Matty’s cherry blossom engagement photos during peak bloom at the Tidal Basin and Jefferson Memorial in Washington, DC. The session, however, didn’t come without lots and lots of planning on the back end! It goes without saying that all of my couples take the weather into consideration; naturally, they look to the forecast in advance to see if there is a chance of rain during their shoot and we plan accordingly, if so. And because the weather changes so rapidly, you are literally making this decision up to the hours before the session is to take place! 

Much like the weather, the infamous DC cherry blossoms are also quite the fickle creature. Unfortunately, the blossoming of these beautiful flowers depends entirely warm temperatures, so we find ourselves, again, at the mercy of the weather. This season, like so many others, was completely unpredictable — it was literally flurrying just this past weekend (It’s APRIL!) and so their original predictions of mid-March were slowly pushed to late March, then mid-April, then a few days earlier. Whew! Even just typing that out is enough to make someone’s head spin. Luckily for me, I have the greatest clients of all time (#humblebrag :) ) and planning with Jenlian was a cinch — whenever one of us saw an update in the predictions, we’d e-mail the other and adjust our calendars accordingly. We worked so well together, in fact, that we were lucky enough to have our session on the first day of peak bloom… how’s that for planning!? 

Getting to know these two while fighting for a spot amongst the other cherry blossoms viewers proved to be a bit more difficult than usual, but by the time we made our way over to the Jefferson, the sunrise crowds had cleared out and we had the place virtually to ourselves! (The photos themselves tell a different story, thanks to some creative angles, but trust me when I say we certainly weren’t the only ones at the Tidal Basin that morning!). Jenlain and Matty met while attending GWU and despite hitting it off immediately, they didn’t start officially dating until a few months later. Neither of these two are originally from DC — Matty is actually from England! — but have created a new home in this amazing town together. Jenlain is getting ready to graduate from Georgetown Law this May and, after taking the bar exam, will be starting to work at a local firm so they will stay in the area for the foreseeable future. 

I’m still so impressed that Jenlain is juggling law school, the bar exam, and a new job, all while wedding planning — but if the cherry blossom scheduling taught me anything it’s that she is surely cut out to handle it! I am so excited to be photographing their wedding next April in Old Town Alexandria and cannot wait to see what these two plan!