Gah! Do we have a shoot for you! You know those days when you’re just hit with inspiration? This was one of those days!
While we were in Florida last week for Nikki and Paul’s destination wedding in Fort Myers Beach, we had the chance to get our dear friends, Bethany and Mike, in front of our cameras for their very last anniversary session before these two become three. They’re celebrating four years of marriage and expecting their first baby this winter, a sweet little girl named Capri, and we could not be more excited for them! They are going to be such amazing parents! Mike and Bethany were married on the beach in a destination wedding of their own four years ago, so there was no better place in the world for these photos. It was so cool to help them make that come full circle!
If Bethany and Mike look familiar, it’s because they modeled for us in our winter wedding styled shoot that was featured on Style Me Pretty earlier this year at the Royal Palms resort in Phoenix. Even though you could never tell in the photos, Mike was such a trooper that day. He powered through that session in a full tuxedo with a 100-degree fever and a terrible stomach flu, and we are forever grateful that he fought through it for us! Just the plain fact that Mike and Bethany were both healthy this time around ensured that this shoot would be more enjoyable than the last one!
Little did we know, we’d need troopers again! The weather in the Gulf Coast can be very unpredictable this time of year, we found out, because it’s the end of hurricane season! We were thrown something different every couple minutes, but Mike and Bethany handled it like pros. We decided to embrace the crazy weather and make it work for us, and it ended up being one of our favorite sessions to date! It sprinkled. It stopped. It drizzled. The sun came out. It poured. Five minutes later the process started over again. That’s how it was the entire time we were shooting, but we wouldn’t let strong sideways wind and rain stop us! In fact, we got inventive. Mike and Jordan alternated holding a beach umbrella to break up the wind and block the rain. It worked pretty well for a while, too! By the end, we were all soaked, but having a great time. Bethany and Mike rolled with it and rocked it like pros, and we just love these images!
Bethany and Mike, we couldn’t be more excited to meet Capri in just a few short months or happier to see you two become parents. We love you both! We had so many favorites that it was almost impossible to narrow them down, but here’s a little look of our time together on the wet, windy beach. You made it look easy. Cheers to your last anniversary as a party of two!
the GEAR USED for this SESSION…
Canon 5D Mark III
Canon 50 1.2
Canon 70-200 2.8
Entire Gear List