Bryce and Kelli met their freshman year of college at the University of Illinois.  They both lived in Newman Hall and belonged to St. John Newman’s Catholic Church.  It’s crazy to think that the place that they met when they were just beginning their time at the University as 19 year olds is the place that they will be getting married next summer. Bryce and Kelli are so cute and fit perfectly together.  I knew as soon as they met with me to book me as their wedding photographer that I would love working with this couple.  They are so at ease and made me feel like we were already good friends prior to really getting to know each other.

I loved sitting down with them and hearing the stories of how they met and how he proposed.  I think that Bryce’s proposal to Kelli is one of my all time favorites. They were in Turkey Run state park on a hike together.  It was starting to get stormy and Kelli thought they should head back home but Bryce was persistent in that he wanted to “make the trip worth the drive”.  It began to downpour on their hike and they stopped under a big rock ledge to wait out the rain. During that time, Bryce began to remind Kelli how much he loved her and everything in their lives together.  He then got down on one knee and asked her to marry him.  After she said yes, they kissed in the rain… can you get any cuter than that?!

For their engagement session, we thought it was fitting to take their photos around University of Illinois campus. We started on the quad and worked around the hundreds of students passing through.  I loved being back on campus and seeing how pretty the quad looked with the fall colors.  After we adventured around campus, we went to the Arboretum and continued their session.  The Arboretum was full of color as well and we had a great time finding different areas to photograph them by.  Ah, I love these photos and this couple and cannot wait for their special day in less than a year!