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Veldkamp Engagement

When I saw that my old gal pal Lindsey had become engaged to her sweetie John, I knew I HAD to photograph them.

Ever since they began dating, I knew they were going to marry each other.

I just knew it!

The Backstory

Lindsey and I have never been close, but in a way, I feel like our paths have been a little extra connected than most.

First of all, we’re both here in Denver, Colorado, but we have the same hometown – O’Fallon, Illinois.

I’ve only lived in Colorado for a year, but it’s been long enough to make me feel a bit sentimental about where I grew up.  There’s even more people in the Denver area who call O’Fallon, Illinois, home!  And as strange as it may seem, I automatically feel close to them because of our hometown connection.

Since 1997, Lindsey has also been a part of some of my most loved experiences from high school.

We both went to Mass at Saint Nicholas Catholic Church with our families every Sunday and experienced their youth program just as it was kicking off.  We attended retreats where we learned about God’s love and each other.  Those retreats hold some of my dearest memories.

We both had the honor of calling ourselves OTHS Marching Panthers.  I get excited just from the thought of it!!!  In the fall of 1998, we both dedicated our entire Saturdays and a couple evenings a week to earn the distinction of calling ourselves that.  During that time, we even flew to Philadelphia to march in Boscov’s Thanksgiving Day Parade.  You know what’s super awesome?  I found this video of that exact performance.  🙂

Finally, we both enjoyed a considerable amount of time in Mr. Tom James’ room at O’Fallon Township High School.  A proud few of quirky creatives with just the right amount of school spirit, we were members of the Yearbook Staff.  Armed with vending machine candy, croppers, and red wax pencils, we voluntarily slaved over glossy black and white photos.  Ahhh…special times.  I really want to share one of our staff photos, but I’ll refrain.  We both look so much cuter now.  😉  Plus, this is supposed to be about her and her honey!

The Couple

Meet John and Lindsey – the future Mr. and Mrs. Veldkamp!

Yes, the same Veldkamp as in Veldkamp’s Flowers and Gifts, for all you locals. 🙂

As soon as she posted that first picture of her and John together on Facebook, I could tell that Lindsey was going to marry this guy.

The huge smiles.  The sparkly eyes.  The ongoing dates and adventures.

The surefire signs of finding one’s mate. 🙂

They look like mates, don’t they?

How magical is this?!  Kissing among the aspens in Colorado…  🙂

I was ecstatic to be able to even use something so Colorado as aspens in the portraits!

Now, I have to stop for a second here.  This field where we photographed was somewhere on the way up to Mt. Evans.  I had no knowledge of it, but John and Lindsey remembered it from a drive they took over a year ago.  I have to give them pretty much all of the credit.  Here I was, with a few ideas, just excited to even have a glimpse of the Front Range in the background.  But we experienced so much more because they had all of these fantastic photography spots in mind and knew how to get us there!  Of course, I was down for it.  🙂

With evergreens and aspens already in the portraits, I was beyond pleased.

And then, it got even better.

We went to Evergreen Lake Park and SAW ELK!!!

So perfectly Colorado…I couldn’t believe it!  I even went to Estes Park, Colorado, the day before Elk Fest and didn’t see any elk!

Here we are casually taking engagement photos, and the elk are pretty much having a party behind us.  They were seriously running around and chasing each other through the water.  It was sweet.

Speaking of sweet, how sweet is this?

These two are such hotties, they make my photographs look extra good!

 

 

I played around with photographing reflection for the first time, and I love these results!  John and Lindsey were such great models – they were pretty much down for anything I wanted to try.  I was in photography heaven.

After the sun set, we realized that we all still wanted more autumnish colors in the portraits.  You know, get up close and personal with some vibrant leaves.

So we all met up again the next morning to do just that!

How magical and intimate do these feel?!  Their chemistry and tenderness with each other was beautiful to witness.

I’m telling you – real Hottie McHottersons right here.

Even their solo shots look stunning!

Gorgeous.

So handsome.

These two were absolutely fabulous to photograph.

And fun too!

Back to them being mates, I think this portrait might show it best.  🙂

Click here to see the Veldkamps’ snow session!

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