North Georgia Mountains Engagement

A Georgia Engagement Session in the rain.

Rachel and Brandon have an awesome story. After meeting at FAMU, and Brandon immediately crushing on her at first sight, these two exchanged numbers. On their first date, Brandon fell asleep in the movie theater. (To his credit, this man was working a full time job AND in college with a full load of classes.) Rachel was pretty certain she would never speak to him again. (confession: I’ve fallen asleep during almost every movie I’ve ever sat down to watch)

Though they stopped dating, their friendship never failed. And about the time they began dating again, Rachel’s father passed away.

About 3 years later, Rachel and Brandon ran into each other (seriously so random) in Miami. He asked her to dinner at a very nice restaurant. Low and behold, Rachel’s phone stopped working, and so she had no idea where to go and when to be there, so she didn’t show up.

Georgia engagement session in the rain

But, despite the circumstances, these two powered on. Together.

Rachel and Brandon are a force of unstoppable power. They’re strong, in love, and determined to be happy. I know that about them because, not only do I know a very brief bit of their story, but the happenings during the day of their engagement session were less than ideal. Actually, they were downright insane.

Before the shoot, Rachel and Brandon drove from Tallahassee (where they live) up to Sandy Springs, Georgia for their engagement session. She and Brandon planned to stay long enough for their engagement session on Saturday and their cake tasting on Sunday. Plus, Rachel has family here, and so she wanted to sneak in a few peeks with them while they were in town.

Rachel was in LOVE with Toccoa Falls, and we had a solid plan. So I thought.

That morning, before the shoot, Rachel had to make an unexpected drive from her hotel in Sandy Springs to Conyers. (ugh!) Because of that, she and Brandon were a few minutes late to the session.

When we finally got to Toccoa Falls, they were closed because of a wedding. I didn’t know that, and I didn’t have a backup plan. (ouch)

I called my friend Courtney, a fellow photog, who I knew knows her way around the GA falls. She and I talked about some options, and we decided Minnehaha Falls would be our best bet. (Thanks Courtney!!!)

The drive into the falls was… Unlike either of us had expected. Not only was it another 40 minutes away, but 20 minutes of that was on a dirt/gravel road. And Brandon was in his prized Dodge Challenger. That’s not the worst of it; about halfway down the dirt road, we found a small river we had to cross.

sigh.

But, amazingly, Brandon powered through it. In his Challenger.

The second we arrived at Minnehaha Falls, thunder started rumbling. (I’d like to mention that we hadn’t even had a moment to really introduce ourselves by this point!!)

We all looked at each other, and pretended we heard nothing. (Rachel had already mentioned she didn’t want to shoot in the rain, and so I was SUPER worried this would upset her.)

The sky opened up the *moment* we got to the falls. They decided they’d worked too hard to get to this point, and so we pushed forward.

Minnehaha Falls Engagement Session

To be completely candid with you, on the inside I was ENTIRELY panicked. I want my couples to experience nothing but joy and happiness before, during, and after their engagement session. And I felt like I’d failed them. Not to mention, Minnehaha falls is in the middle of a gajillion trees. And so behind the canopy of a mature forest, and underneath a very thick layer of storm clouds, the light of the day was completely not ideal for my cameras. (and it was raining on my clients!!!!)

Do you see why I say these two are an unstoppable force?

As I went through their gallery this morning, I saw moments between them that I’d missed when we were together. The way Brandon relaxes when Rachel embraces him. How Rachel’s eyes literally light up with life when Brandon smiles at her.

The moments leading up to this session may have had ME panicked, but it is clear to me now that they were enjoying each other. And making the best of the situation we had in front of us.

I admire them.

When the rain became too much, we made our way back down the falls and decided to head to an open field I’d spotted on the way in for some sunset photos.

North Georgia Engagement Session in the rain

Unfortunately, the rain followed us.

But guess who kept smiling…

And, finally…. Brilliant light!!!!

And this was when we found ourselves in the middle of a nest of yellow jackets…

But we found more gorgeous light near this fence line that Rachel spotted!!

However, the yellow jackets followed us.

(You guys… Can you imagine this being your engagement session?! Seriously. Insane.)

Despite the rain, their exhaustion and my absoultely emotionally panicked mind, we ran across the street to escape the yellow jackets and soak up the last bits of this fabulous sunset.

And still, these two were all smiles. (Looking at them here… I cannot believe it. They’re gorgeous, and they have an amazing spirit together.)

To Rachel and Brandon, I cannot express in words how blown away I am by your tenacity and determination to be happy and make the best of a situation. Over and over again.

You’re both amazing.

Thank you for choosing me to celebrate along side you two as you come together in marriage. I’m excited for your wedding next August at Ashton Gardens, and I look forward to sitting down with you two some time soon so we can have a proper conversation, and get to know each other!! 🙂

With love,
Rocheal