Ronnie and Kristen
Pacific City, Oregon Coast
Driving out to the coast, the rain pelted down on my windshield and I felt that nervous knot in my stomach which always happens when rain decides to show up on the day of a shoot. Hopping out of my jeep, I found Kristen and Ronnie in the parking area next to the beach at Pacific City. I walked up, holding my breath and after a brief hello the first words out of my mouth were “I’m so sorry about the rain…” Ronnie laughed and Kristen joyfully proclaimed that they were actually really excited about the rain and felt that it would provide the perfect Oregon Coast mood to their images. Breathing a BIG sigh of relief, I set off to the sand with them for a few fun shots on the beach before adventuring up into the dunes.
Kristen and Ronnie are an incredible couple. I met them on-line when they submitted their love story for an engagement session give-away contest I was hosting, and their story instantly stole my heart! To finally meet them was a true treasure!
Ronnie and Kristen met while in the wedding party for some mutual friends. To say they clicked immediately would be an understatement. The first night they hung out ended up with an all-night dance-a-thon to EVERY song on a Garth Brooks Album Kristen played as she was very quickly swept off her feet by Ronnie’s easy-going personality and good heart. Their first official date was to an Eagles Concert and after a night of shared mutual love for live music and more dancing, Kristen fully opened her heart to Ronnie and the two of them have been inseparable ever since. Early-on in their relationship they found out that their grandfathers had been best friends and that Ronnie as a child even spent quite a bit of time at Kristen’s family’s farm, so when it came time to “meet the family” it was more like a reunion than a first meeting! Kristen and Ronnie continue to go to every concert they possibly can and when I asked them for a list of their top shows they quickly rattled off so many names that I could hardly keep up!
Spending time with Ronnie and Kristen is like meeting old friends you haven’t seen in ages, but when you get together again you feel that instant and lasting bond of closeness and ease. Our photo session was filled more with conversation and laughter then it was with directional posing, and in a very short while I was privileged to learn so much about them, their relationship, and their lives.
Kristen and Ronnie have two sons and Ronnie is the most amazing and loving father to them both. At one moment during our session, with the wind blowing and the rain gently pouring down, Kristen’s eyes began to water as she told Ronnie just how proud she was of him for the father he had been to her oldest at a moment when he was vulnerable and needed help and protection. Kristen even confided in me how before she met Ronnie she had all but given up on men and finding love, and had felt content with raising her first son on her own. Literally days before meeting Ronnie, she decided to open her heart just once more and decided to be open to the possibility of a good man coming into her life. Seeing how Ronnie interacted with her oldest was just one way she knew he was the one for her. And after they had a child together, she knew there was no one else she could ever picture herself being with.
We had a blast together during their adventure shoot, bumping down a dead-end and rain-rutted road in my Jeep, the 4X4 set to low to avoid getting stuck in the massive puddles and soft sand. Kristen went barefoot as we followed a steep path through the thick foliage to the side of the large dune that overlooks Pacific City. As I photographed them the wind whipped Kristen’s gorgeous dress and her stylish hat tried to escape down to the crashing waves beneath us on multiple occasions! These two were true adventurers as Ronnie’s infection laugh and Kristen’s smoldering eyes made my camera shutter snap non-stop. All too soon the evening light faded and we had to leave the magic of the dunes, but we walked away with not only some gorgeous engagement photos but for me, some true new friends.
Kristen and Ronnie’s wedding is set for next February and I couldn’t be more excited for them! Check out some of the images from their engagement shoot below!
