I don’t usually go in for themed engagement sessions – I love the ones that are natural and lovely, that I can picture being hung in a home for years to come. However, even though the engagement session we’re sharing today has a light theme, I fell in love with it immediately! After a string of bad weather weekends forced Joel to propose on the ground, he and Courtney decided to incorporate a hot air balloon into their engagement shoot instead. Inspired by one of their favorite movies, Moonrise Kingdom, and their hopes for a life together filled with adventure, they crafted a beautiful, authentic session I know they’ll treasure.
Read on for more of their story below, and huge hugs to Todd Helzer for sharing these photos with us!
If there was ever an engagement session you wanted to see in action, it’s this one, right? Thanks to Nice & Blue Films, we’ve got y’all covered.
From Courtney: Joel and I met on the dance floor of a friend’s wedding and from there the adventure began. We did not mean for this to become the theme of our relationship, but it did. In a short time, “adventure dreams” caught on as a little phrase we would say to each other almost every day. From there our love for the outdoors, exploring new places, and trying new things together grew into the lifestyle we had always dreamed of.
That’s where the inspiration for our engagement shoot came in. You could say it was a happy accident, because the hot air balloon ride was not supposed to happen. For weeks, Joel had planned on proposing in a field and whisking me off into the sky afterwards, but the weather was not cooperating. Each weekend Joel would plan it again, the owner of the balloon would call and say there was too much fog, there was rain on the way, or the wind was too strong. Joel decided this wasn’t going to stop him so he proposed anyway — downtown Birmingham, at 5am. Once we began planning for engagement photos, he told me about the previous hot air balloon plan and that he still wanted to take me on that adventure. So, we decided we’d put it in our photos and create a story that parallels our life and one of our favorite movies, Moonrise Kingdom. The photos ended up being more than we could ever ask for. They tell the story of a boy who met a girl, explored with her and fell in love. We loved ending the photos with the hot air balloon ride because it speaks to our desire to explore new heights and look forward to the unknown adventures ahead!
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