Chelsea and Ryan's Pennsylvania Adventure Engagement Session | Boston Wedding Photographer
Winter engagement sessions are notoriously hard to plan. Being a Boston based wedding photographer, I deal with a lot of notoriously hard to plan winter engagement sessions. The snow is unpredictable, the wind is unpredictable, and on any given day in New England it could be 50 degrees or it could be 5 degrees. So of course the day Chelsea and Ryan and I planned their engagement session, it ended up being single digits with absolutely no snow. I cannot say this enough, cold weather photos are not worth it without snow. If we’re in an absolute wonderland, absolutely let’s do it. But if everything is dead AND our faces are going to hurt with cold? No. Nope. Let’s brainstorm something else.
With some initial disappointment, I asked that Chelsea and Ryan consider postponing our engagement session and I offered to drive to Philly, their new home, to make up for it. Things could’t have turned out any better, it was totally fate. Chelsea and Ryan recently relocated from Nashville to outside Philly, so it was extra special to explore their new home before their fall wedding in Western Massachusetts.
We got coffee at the Gryphon in downtown Wayne, and even caught a train going by. We stopped to grab some photos of them in front of the Anthony Wayne Cinemas and then after a warm up break at the local pub, we drove to Valley Forge National Park. The park is huge, and while there wasn’t any snow, it was a much milder temperature and the warm color of the wheat fields are a photo dream. The key to winter photos is bringing hot hands / hand warmers in your pockets to keep them toasty during snaps and the answer to “should we bring our dog?” is always yes. You always wanna kick off with the “family photo” first with lots of a treats, and then just let your dog run around off leash and play with you. Basically I treat a traditional family session the same way. haha
For good fun, we even swung by the country club that Ryan worked at in high school on our way back. I definitely reminded Ryan that his high school self would be pumped to see him now with his hot finance!
Chelsea and Ryan, thank you for trusting me with our rescheduling and I’m really glad things worked out the way they did. Exploring your new home with you was way better than we had planned and can’t wait to finally meet up in Western Mass for your fall Valley View Farm wedding!
