Man, talk about a FUN engagement session! Dom and I LOVED spending time with Mickey and Julie traipsing all over Portland and photographing in it’s iconic beauty.

Doing Urban-Style sessions is more unique for us so when Julie asked if doing a session highlighting the city was an option I was quick to say yes!

I actually know Julie from our college days when we both attended the University of Oregon (go Ducks!) so when she saw me on The Knot and reached out I was super excited to not only get the chance to be a part of her wedding experience, but also just to catch up as we’d lost touch over the years.

Julie and Mickey met online and are one of those beautiful modern success stories of how dating sites like Okay, Cupid can really bring people together who might otherwise never had the chance to meet.

After some trouble with relationships in the past, both Mickey and Julie were looking for something real and lasting. Julie told me during our e-session that she was determined not to settle and so thought she had nothing to loose by putting in all the ideal qualities she was looking for in her dating profile, including finding someone who was over 6’4” so she could wear heels without any introversion. With Julie’s specific criteria, she only hit on a small number of matches, but Mickey was one of them, and with a 97% match rate, Julie was pretty excited for them to meet!

Mickey had moved to Portland from the Bay Area, so meeting someone new in a new area was a bit of a challenge for him until he met Julia.

After dating for a year and seeing that their life goals and relationship really were as ideal as their match percentage predicted, Mickey moved in with Julia and bonding over the 2020 pandemic brought them even closer together, so they started planning their future which include a relaxed wedding with close family and friends in the early autumn of 2021.

Mickey and Julia enjoy just handing out in Portland and exploring the city together. Mickey is a carpenter and works on some of those large sky-scraper projects you can see going up and transforming the Portland skyline, so Portland is truly in his blood now!

Mickey choose Julie’s gorgeous engagement ring all on his own and during their session we laughed about how, even months later she still gets distracted by it’s beautiful sparkle.

Dom and I loved hanging out with these two, whose easy, relaxed manner made them so much fun to photograph. Julie and Mickey also are two people with style as a natural aspect of who they are, so highlighting that was also a blast!

We started off on the south waterfront on the most beautiful sunny spring day, checking out Poet’s beach, then heading into the Pearl and swinging through the blooming cherry blossoms on our way to Julie and Mickey’s favorite bridge in Portland, the Steel Bridge.

We finished up by the Hawthorne swim dock where I freaked everyone out by balancing on top of a small sailboat while framing the two of them cuddling with the evening city lights in the background.

Dom will be photographing their wedding in September at the Leach Botanical Garden Manor House in Portland and I’m so sticking excited for them! Check out some images from their engagement session below!