If you’ve been following the blog for any amount of time, you might recognize these two! They previously modeled for me for a DAR elopement wedding in Washington, DC last summer, and then I flew out to Chicago in the fall to capture their proposal on North Avenue Beach! We were first introduced by a dear friend, Emily, who you may have also seen around the blog quite a bit! Nina and I hit it off immediately — I always tell her that we are the same person, just a few years apart. Emily and Nina, along with a few of my other past brides, all attended VCU with one another and were in the same sorority. I can’t even imagine how much fun that would’ve been to be part of that group! 

And Nina’s finacé, Yousef, I also got to know quite well in the weeks leading up to the proposal! Scheming and planning for the big day was such a blast and I wish we could go back in time do it all over again! I hadn’t gotten to see these two together since that special day, so I was anxiously awaiting our engagement session in DC while Nina was home for spring break. Nina currently attends dental school in Kentucky while Yousef works back in VA and is studying for his MCATs. Yep, a dentist and doctor — these two are quite the pair! 

April showers seem to be “thing” this year and with Nina home for such a limited amount of time, we had to work around what the weather was giving us! We took our chances that the storms would miss us and it paid off perfectly — we had the entire monument to ourselves! I’ve truly never seen the place so empty, which gave us time to explore not only the Lincoln, but also the DC War Memorial, and even the cherry blossoms! There weren’t too many left since the peak ended a few days prior, but I think we found a pretty good patch! 

Nina & Yousef, you know I love you both! And thank you for allowing me to capture so many milestones in your lives!