zach & shaina | cherokee, iowa

Towards the end of last autumn, I met up with Shaina and Zach at the Silver Sioux Recreational Area near Quimby for their engagement session. This is truly one of my favorite locations because of the versatility, with the red barn, the gorgeous winding road, the beautiful trees, and the tall grass field and river across the road. I truly loved this shoot because not only did I get to photograph these two (who are CLEARLY madly in love with each other), but their adorable daughter was there for the shoot as well!

We started off by photographing all three of them:

Isn’t she seriously the cutest? The bright blonde hair, that “almost guilty” little grin, and her sweet tiny boots! Oh my goodness, she makes me want a daughter so bad!

Then we kicked Grandma out with the baby and moved on to the romantic engagement part of the session. We hiked up the hill to my favorite old bridge hiding back in the trees! Shaina was a trooper, literally, for hiking up in a little bit of mud with her heels on! She’s my kind of girl for doing that without complaining!

They were so adventurous and were up for anything, so we headed back out to the road and found this old abandoned barn. I have a thing for old barns barely hanging on!

We finally finished our session with the sunset over Main Street in Cherokee where I could get creative with the “kissing in the street” shot and even act like we had a high class cafe in town! These two seriously made this session so easy! Their laughter and their connection is obvious and incredibly fun to photograph!

In just a few short months, Shaina and Zach will make it official. I cannot wait to see them commit themselves to each other. Here’s to a beautiful marriage full of health, happiness, and family bonding!