Leah and Shawn…two of the most gracious people I’ve ever worked with!

I debated about sharing this because it’s definitely not one of my prouder moments, but it wouldn’t be fair to these two if I didn’t explain because of how absolutely amazing they were through their engagement photo experience!

August was a crazy whirlwind for us with vacation and then my grandmother passing away. As I got back into the swing of things the following Thursday, I was looking at my calendar and thought I’d give Leah a quick text to confirm our engagement session scheduled for the following day.  When she called me immediately after the text sent, I was a little concerned but I answered. Leah then ever so politely and sweetly said that she was confused because they were ten minutes from downtown and ready for their session! 😳

My stomach dropped and I immediately went into panic mode thinking through my scheduling and racking my brain for how this could’ve happened! I settled on the fact that I must’ve bumped the date to Friday while editing the time of her session on my calendar while on vacation. Stumbling my way through the rest of the call, mortified, I told them I would be there as fast as I could, all the while thinking that I needed to change my clothes, fix my hair, gather my equipment (that was still semi-packed from vacation), grab my phone charger, make sure I had flashes (since the sun would be setting sooner than I had planned) all while trying to compose myself and focus!  If you know me, I like to be prepared so this threw me wayyy off!

During my drive downtown, I was beating myself up about how I could’ve possibly let this happen and how absolutely unprofessional it was. My sister, being the amazing girl she is, agreed to come and help with carrying equipment since she was at my house when Leah called, so she let me vent but also assured me that accidents happen and everyone’s human, which I was not receiving very well!

By this time it was about 7:15 and the sun was rapidly setting. I called Leah and she was already standing by a parking spot that she found for us. Embarrassed and apologizing profusely, we parked and went into the restaurant to meet Shawn. After more apologies from me, Leah pointed out two big chocolate chip cookies on the table. She said that they felt bad that we probably hadn’t eaten dinner since we were rushed and they thought we might be hungry. How thoughtful and sweet!?

Through the rest of their session, I was blown away by their understanding, flexibility, willingness, and go with the flow attitudes!  I kept saying how embarrassed I was because I’ve NEVER done anything like that before, but how grateful I was that it happened with two of the most gracious people! We ended up getting some pretty exciting shots as we explored the city after dark and I simply can’t say enough about  how incredible Leah and Shawn were. I know I would’ve been pretty frustrated if I was the client, but the experience taught me two things:

First, I need to be a little less hard on myself. I’m not saying that it wasn’t a HUGE mistake (because it definitely was!), but I’ll learn from it and realize that nobody’s perfect and everyone has their moments.

And second, if more people reacted like Leah and Shawn did when things didn’t go as planned, the world would literally be so amazing! So I might’ve given them some memorable engagement photos, but they honestly taught me some big life lessons during their session too! 💕

We cannot wait to photograph the natural and beautiful love that Leah and Shawn have for each other during their wedding!!!

And we promise we’ll be there on the right day! 🤦🏼‍♀️😉