Being back at back in my home state of Florida for this Bok Tower Engagement Session with Meredith & John gave me so many warm feelings. Not only warm because of the fact that I was a pool of sweat before they even got to our session location at Bok Tower Gardens, but also because I truly feel like you cannot beat those late summer sunsets in FL. However, just a little note to myself and anyone else who needs it: Do not drink a full Celsius drink before a session when it’s nearly 100 degrees outside. Why? Your heart rate and energy will be to the roof and you will sweat, Like, a lot. Haha!
One reason I show up to engagement sessions long before a couple arrives is to location scout. Even though I’ve photographed at Bok Tower Gardens a ton of times, you just never know where crowds will populate or what events may be happening on site the day of. For instance, the day of this engagement session at Bok Tower, there was a full on wedding happening at a popular photo location in the park. This obviously meant many areas were blocked off for the event. No worries for us though! Since I arrived long before my couple got there for the session, I was still able to find a ton of really pretty areas in the park. Truthfully, when you look through the photos — you’d think we had the place to ourselves. We definitely did not!
What about the things you cannot predict? Like, an instant FL rain shower?
Of course, there are things I cannot plan for. Living in NC now, weather is a lot easier to predict. I can check the weather and plan leading up to the session date and be totally okay. On the other hand, if you know anything about FL, you’ll know rain and thunderstorms literally start out of NOWHERE no matter how much you plan. Actually, that’s exactly what happened to us during this engagement session at Bok Tower. There we were, photographing, having a good time — then boom! All of a sudden, a cloud open up over us and we were getting rained on; drenched. So what did we do? It’s an all outdoor park, but luckily I already knew where the nearest shelter was, so we walked, er…ran over to take cover & wait out the quick mini storm.
The rain break gave us a good 10 min to talk and relax before photographing again. From there, thee rest of the session went perfectly to plan. We even had to time to use a second outfit on our way out of the park at my favorite location — the beautiful fields! Reach out! If you’re planning your own engagement session! I’d love to make the process an easy and fun experience for you as well, no matter what!
