Helena, MT Engagement Session: Elizabeth + Anthony

Sometimes the life of a military man isn't convenient…and it takes a special woman by his side to endure the rigors of service.

As a helicopter pilot your life can be dictated to you at the drop of a hat, and sometimes the dominoes that fall during that process include your wedding photographer.

In the aftermath of Hurricane Florence, Anthony got activated to the East Coast to help with hurricane relief, meaning our originally scheduled engagement session needed to change. With an open ended deployment that didn’t guarantee a return date, and a full list of wedding planning tasks to complete on a schedule, we decided to bump up their engagement session on two-days notice to make it work before he left.

I am so glad we did.

What blew me away, in the moment of deployment uncertainty and the unknown amount of time that he was to be gone, Elizabeth and Anthony decided to spend their last hours together with me. Not soaking up every last moment alone, not preparing for the tough task of being a part for the foreseeable future… nope. They decided to hang out with their wedding photographer.

And then it hit me. This was the PERFECT way to spend their last moments together, completely enthralled in each other, celebrating their blossoming love, hand in hand, laughing and drinking and kissing and letting me into their story.

I got to be the perfect excuse to talk about his job as a pilot and her job as a nurse, to talk about his love for the Denver Broncos and her love for the Dallas Cowboys, to talk about their fur babies (Dixii and Oakley) and to practice their first dance on a bridge in the middle of Montana.

I got to be the perfect excuse to remember the way he popped the question on his family’s mining claim with all the family present, and discuss how long it takes to fly a helicopter from Montana to Maryland.

Lastly, I got to be the perfect excuse for a fun-loving couple up for any adventure, to sit at the top of the hill with a beer in hand, and wait for the sunset to be just right... which, as it turns out, is the perfect way to create a memory that makes life’s unexpected events a little more bearable.

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