Rachel and Kyle’s love story is one of those that just play out right before your eyes. They’re a couple that when you see them together you 100% buy into their love for one another. What a match! This couple opted to have a short engagement season. Kyle popped the question in September and these two were married just this past January (I’ll have a blog post on their wedding day super soon!) There was a small part of me that was a little bummed that they couldn’t be my client for longer but it also was super sweet not having to wait a long time for the wedding day (it was a GOOD one!)

But we’ll talk more about their wedding in a future post – for now this post is all about the engagement session! For Kyle and Rachel’s shoot I challenged them to about things they enjoy doing as a couple. I’m a big time believer in the idea that an engagement session is only the best it can be if the location of the shoot makes sense. What I mean is I always encourage my couples to select photo shoot locations that make sense to who they are as a couple!

Kyle shared with me his love for reading and Rachel told me about her plant obsession. The coolest thing about love is learning what one another’s passions are and taking it on as a passion of your own. Rachel and Kyle love to snuggle up and read books together and Kyle is eager to learn more about the plants that will fill their home. So sweet!

With this in mind I wanted to select a location that married (ha, see what I did there) both their passions of books and plants. This is why we landed on Oxford Exchange and Fancy Free Nursery. Both locations are within a 5 minute drive from one another in Tampa and contained both Rachel and Kyle’s loves: books and plants! I cannot express enough how perfect it all was.

I love the moody, brutalist tones and marble floors of Oxford Exchange and it was nicely balanced with the warm textures and lively plants at Fancy Free. At Oxford Exchange these two pursued the book section of the store pointing out their personal favorites and admiring the beautiful covers. All three of us grabbed a Buddy Brew coffee and sat down to chat.

They shared with me how their mutual friend Elyse introduced them to one another (Elyse is also who referred me to Rachel and Kyle – she’s the real MVP!) They connected on their similar upbringings of having father’s who were pastors and how they both had been praying for God to guide them to their perfect person. Rachel admittedly was apprehensive about diving into a relationship, but Kyle was equal parts patient and persistent and their relationship eventually blossomed into a romance. The way these two giggled and looked at one another as they shared with me their love story was sweet enough for pages of a love novel of their own.

Once we finished our coffees, we headed over to Fancy Free Nursery where Rachel gushed over the beautiful greens that filled the room and Kyle impressed us all with his growing knowledge of plants. I had been wanting to shoot at Fancy Free for a while now so I was thrilled when the nursery had availability for us. We essentially had the entire shop to ourselves to wander around and take photos between and amongst all the leafy greens. It left me definitely wanting to come back again for future shoots!

Overall, this engagement session was probably one of my favorites. It was my last of the year and the best way to wrap engagement sessions for 2021. Here are a few of my top photos from their shoot, enjoy!