Toccoa Falls Engagement Session

This Toccoa Falls engagement session touches the innermost (wannabe) adventurer depths of my soul, and I’m obsessed. Back when I *first* picked up my camera, I had dreams to travel the world taking pictures of just things. Bugs. Water. Waterfalls. Mountains… But you see, I already had a child, so there was no traveling for me. And back then I had no skill, so, well… You know how that goes.

As my place in the world of photography settles, I still find myself in awe of God’s creations and wanting to take *all the pictures*. And having honest-to-goodness FUN with my clients is what I’m after.

In late July Kacey found me through Ashton Gardens, which has become one of my favorite venues. She reached out to me, we FaceTimed, and it wasn’t long before I felt like she was so soul sister. Her fiancé’s name is Casey and her best friend’s name is Macey (we got a kick out of that). She told me all about her super awesome family, is incredibly open to adventure, and is completely gaga obsessed over her dog.

(Can you blame her?! His name is Waffles, and he’s pretty much the coolest little dog ever.)

Anyway… As we were planning their engagement session, Toccoa Falls seemed like a no-brainer. It’s seriously one of the coolest and tallest falls I’ve seen, and it’s incredibly easy to access. Also, it’s like 1.5 hours from the Atlanta area. (Bonus!)

Despite the incredibly hot weather (seriously, the heat index was like over 100 degrees) and the thousand percent humidity, these two were in excellent spirits and ready to have fun in their bare feet! (fun fact: I got married in bare feet!)

As 5 o’clock rolled around, we scrambled for some last minute photos before the sweet folks of TFC kicked us out.

We headed back down to the parking lot, and Taylor (Kacey’s sister and MOH, and seriously the BEST HELP EVERRRRR!!!) mentioned another really cool teeny waterfall she’d spotted when they were driving around. As we were just about to head down there, the sky graced us with a torrential downpour… because summer. (It wasn’t just raining… It was POURING)

These two, however? Ready to play in the rain. 🙂

For the purpose of a little variety for their gallery, I followed them around (with the amazing Taylor holding an umbrella over my head!!) with my camera while they strolled along in the rain. (I love how you can see the blurry rain drops all around them in this picture. And I also love how Waffles was happy, despite the weather, just to be near them.

Meanwhile, if you could see us behind-the-scenes… As we headed to the sweet little waterfall Taylor scouted earlier, I was trying my best to hide the fact that I was holding over $7,000 of electrical equipment, of which has to be used again… soon… and subjecting it to, what felt like, pure water submersion. (Everything’s fine!! It’s great. Everything is going to be fine!!!)

Everything WAS fine (thank goodness for Taylor’s help and Kacey and Casey’s incredible spirits). We had a killer day, and we got some pretty epic shots.

As the rain settled down, we all toweled off while Waffles took advantage of his final excitement for the day.

And what better way to end the day than with a fun ring shot on his precious little nose?

I’m thankful for this session for so many reasons. Atop all the other reasons, I most appreciate these three for awakening the wannabe adventurer parts of my soul that seemed to be hibernating.

I cannot *wait* for your wedding day next February.

Get ready, Ashton Gardens… We’re coming. 🙂

Hair: Beauty Bar