Sometimes everything goes perfectly to plan…
Other times it still goes perfectly to plan, except that the weather is trying to do all four seasons in an hour. Such is life in Oregon.
I first met Briana through Summer Robbins Flowers during my first year in Bend. I could immediately see that her heart was just as big as her smile and felt so blessed to have multiple opportunities to work with her over the last couple of years. This past summer I got to meet her partner, Drew and was pleasantly surprised when he reached out to me a few months later to discuss a surprise portrait session with Briana and her Frenchie, Chloe. Surprise portraits you say? Hmmmmm sounds like a proposal to me! Even though I desperately wanted to ask him if he was going to put a ring on it, I decided to wait until he brought it up at a coffee/planning date. …which he did. Yay!!!
I suggested the dock at Suttle Lake. It’s not heavily populated during December, I’ve been wanting to do a session there, it’s romantic af, aaaaaand I learned it’s where they had one of their first dates! Yaaaas best location ever! We decided that it would be less suspicious if we started the shoot like a regular portrait session with just the two of them to warm up. *wink* Then I would ask Drew to go get Chloe from the car, at which point he would put on her special collar and tag. I’d have them all set up and “Oh no, Drew tie your shoe for me…” and “Hey Briana can you fix Chloe’s collar?”
She said yes!
Many thanks to my lovely assistant, Sara for all her help in making this a flawless experience.