Carmen + Shay
An Adventure Engagement Session in the Columbia River Gorge
Dom and I had been looking forward to Carmen and Shay’s adventure engagement session ever since we decided on an epic evening that was to include both a hike to the gorgeous Wachella Falls, and a sunset champaign pop at Rowena Crest, I mean does it get any better than this? I think not!?
To top it off, Carmen and Shay are just about the nicest couple you could ever ask to hang out with, so we had a blast adventuring around (even through the rain!).
Pulling up to the Wachella parking lot we met Carmen and Shay and found out that it was “national parks day” so our parking fee was waved, bonus! We started down the trail and I immediately started asking Carmen and Shay how it was going settling into life in Oregon.
Shay recently got a job with Nike and so he and Carmen just recently moved across the country to Oregon from New York. Since I’ve never been to the big apple, it was fascinating to hear how different Oregon is in terms of the pace of people and just the general culture.
Carmen laughed about how even though we had to drive through a literal deluge in the gorge on the way out to Wachella falls it didn’t seem to be keeping anyone away from hiking adventures and we passed several groups of Oregonians happily hiking in the inclement weather (with not a single umbrella to be found too of course!).
As we arrived at the falls, Carmen and Shay changed into their fancier shoes which included Carmen being extra-daring in a pair of gorgeous heels, and Shay in some brown leather shoes which I’m afraid might have created a few blisters on the hike out!
We warmed up with learning a few basic poses and the weather gave us just one last little spurt of rain before the sun started streaking through the overcast sky. Wachella falls is one of my favorites in the Gorge as it has quite a lot of light that comes into the falls area, creating less shadows for a natural light photographer like myself. :)
Carmen and Shay’s laughter was infectious as our shoot took us up and down the precarious stones which surrounded the path to the falls, and I’m fairly certain at one point Shay thought I was absolutely insane for having him repeatedly kiss Carmen’s hand while I got that “perfect shot.” ;)
Hiking down from the falls, we got to chatting about their last 5 years together as a couple from how they met on Tinder, to Shay making a full convert of Carmen into a Kansas City Chiefs fan. They are also avid travelers and Shay and Dom enjoyed chatting about their experiences traveling through Thailand.
After the falls we headed out to Rowena Crest after a stop in Hood River for some food and to let the golden hour light approach a little more closely. Despite the rainy start to the day, by the time evening rolled around the sky was a gorgeous glowing mix of sunbeams diffused by billowing and colorful clouds.
The wind in the gorge and especially at Rowena Crest is no joke, so we took a bit of a hike over to a more secluded side of the crest, which overlooked the Columbia River with the vineyards of Washington softly set off in the background.
Shay and Carmen laughed as they told us the story of their engagement and we had an absolute ball seeing Shay pop a champaign bottle, spraying it all over the place.
Just as the sun set we took another short walk to a mini patch of tall, golden grass and Dom provided some comic relief as Shay requested to hold Carmen in his favorite “Titanic Pose” position and Dom raised his cell phone with Celine Dion belting out “My Heart Will Go On” over the speaker.
Overall spending the afternoon with these two beautiful people was an evening I’ll never forget and I am so stinking excited for their gorgeous wedding at Abernethy Center this July!
Check out some of my favorite images from Carmen and Shay’s adventurous engagement session below, and be sure to drop them some love in the comments!
