Ready for one of the coolest engagement stories ever?! Well welcome to Dillon and Cara’s beautiful love story! Cara and Dillon are just about the most wonderfully real people you can ever hope to be around. From the first time Cara and I video chatted we hit it off and I just loved how Cara was so true to her wedding goals despite a lot of changes that had to be forced on her and Dillion with the craziness of the pandemic.

Dillon and Cara were originally planning to have their wedding on a cruise but with the world turning topsy-turvey, they have now planned for an intimate celebration at Skamania Lodge and are saving their more tropical travel for their honeymoon.

When I first met Dillon in person I was struck with his easy of manor and how comfortable be was around Cara. Dillion was quick to open up and tell me about their life and relationship and let me tell you- Dillon’s proposal and the way he treats Cara like a queen is “#relationshipgoals” haha!

So Cara is a HUGE fan of travel and has journeyed to many amazing places that I have on my “bucket list” including Machu Pichu and other incredible places in South America. When she and Dillon met however, Dillon hadn’t ever been on an airplane, preferring to do all his travel within the US, so once their relationship started developing you can bet she introduced him to the jet-set travel lifestyle ASAP!

Cara planned Dillon’s first trip abroad to Japan which Dillon thought would be the perfect place to propose. However, sneaking a ring through several airports without Cara finding out proved to be quite difficult, and Dillon had me busting up laughing as he told me the story!

Despite traveling extensively in Europe and SE Asia, I have yet to visit Japan, so when Dillon told me he had planned to propose to Cara while they were at a castle I couldn’t quite picture what a Japanese castle looked like. Cara had a few images on her phone from their trip and showed them to me and turns out Japanese castles are totally incredible!! They are almost all white and look absolutely stunning when set against the lush green of the Japanese landscape. Dillon again had me laughing out loud as he explained that he had picked out the “perfect” proposal location on this bridge that was in front of one particular castle, and just as he was steeling himself to pop the question, Cara’s brother who was their acting “tour guide” while there, told him to hold off, as the bridge was actually called the ‘Bridge of Lost Love’ and it would be incredibly bad luck to propose there!

Respecting local superstitions, Dillon chose a different spot to propose that was just as incredible however, and as he pulled out a gorgeous topaz ring, one of the Japanese castles shined white and pure in the reflected light, providing the perfect backdrop for such a momentous occasion.

Dillon and Cara had chosen Oxbow regional park for their engagement session, and as the three of us enjoyed swapping travel stories, my husband Dom enjoyed some of the trail running that this beautiful park boasts and even came to photo bomb one or two of Dillon and Cara’s engagement session images!

I loved learning about Dillon and Cara’s first date which started in the morning with breakfast and lasted all the way though lunch and well into the evening as they explored the city, talked non-stop and even did a little trespassing in Milwaukie before settling in to watch movies together.

Dillon is quite a romantic and will often times pick out a single flower from a local florist who has a shop in the building where Dillon works. He’ll end up placing this flower in Cara’s drink straw or leaving it for her somewhere special, just to remind her how much he cares for her. What an amazing man!

Cara is quite the planner and is a professional baker and has even done many wedding cakes for other brides. She will also be doing all the baking for their Valentine’s Day wedding this February, yum!

I absolutely loved hanging out with this amazing couple and I can’t wait for their wedding next year where they will be staying in treehouses and where we plan on taking some epic evening portraits in the gorge and by campfire light!

Check out some of my favorite images from our shoot below, and leave some love for these guys in the comments!