I met Katie and Aaron in the heart of Washington, DC at the US Capitol and Library of Congress for their summer engagement session — two of the most recognizable spots in the city — as an homage to the place they now call home. When we were first planning their session, they were naturally a bit apprehensive about shooting in August as DC is generally a swamp this time of year. I assured them that the morning would be much cooler and luckily the weather showed up for us — it was a near perfect 75 degrees as we got started with little  humidity which was amazing and even better than I expected.

As I alluded to earlier, these two are both mid-west transplants and that met during a program after college called City Year where they used their degrees in education to support the local community. After leaving the program, they are now established teachers (well, Aaron has moved from teaching to leading!) at different charter schools in the area. And while they both miss home and travel back often to see family, they both cannot imagine their lives outside of DC now that they live here!

They will, however, be returning to the mid-west for their wedding next October in Michigan, just outside of Chicago; since neither of their families is local, they couldn’t justify having everyone fly to their new home and are bringing the celebration to them! They found the perfect venue that Katie described as Joanna Gaines meets industrial — the perfect blend of his and hers.

Katie and Aaron, thank you so much for allowing me to capture your engagement session here in Washington, DC! I loved spending the morning with you two… I’m so excited to see where the two of you end up for your honeymoon (adventure or relaxation!?!) and cannot wait to see those sure-to-be gorgeous wedding photos!