Epic Romantic Rocky Mountain Engagement Session | S+D | Calgary, AB

January 22, 2022

This Rocky Mountain engagement session may have been one of the absolute HIGHLIGHTS of my year last year. I purposefully had quietly tiptoed back into the wedding industry. With a slow start last summer after an almost 2 year hiatus (due equally in part to creative fatigue & burnout coupled with the unexpected onset shortly thereafter of a global pandemic) there was no telling what the upcoming 2021 season would look like. But this session, this TRIP in fact, was one I had been anxiously anticipating from the beginning…

Samantha + Dan | The Backstory

I LOVE these two!!! They remind me of my partner & myself, we all have very similar dynamics and get along as if we’d known each other our whole lives. When Samantha & I met, we were in paradise – LITERALLY! We were lucky enough to meet down in Cabo, Mexico where Sam was attending Angie + Dan’s destination beach wedding which I was coincidently photographing!! Sam & I hit it off right from the start. I adored her from the very first moment we met and it felt like a kismet friendship – we have so many similarities we sometimes joked we felt like we’re the same person! I love when you find a kindred spirit like Samantha. Dan truly is her equal in that sense, these two are SOOO caring, generous and incredibly genuine people. I’ll save their real love story for their wedding blog because I really have to gush about how amazing souls these two are.

Their Rocky Mountain Engagement Session

As I met Samantha at a wedding in Mexico, it meant we weren’t necessarily from the same town (or province!). Samantha (& Dan who was back home) was from Calgary, myself from Langley, BC. Yet this did not deter S+D one bit from flying me out for their Rocky Mountain engagement session & party weekend over the Labour Day long weekend last September (2021! I can’t even keep track of time it’s flying so fast these days!!). These two treated me like family. I felt absolutely spoiled after an amazing weekend with them. We started off our weekend adventure on the Friday by Sam picking me up at the airport & us zipping to their house to meet Dan, get ready and load up the pups & gear!! Soon enough, we were off & into the mountains outside of Calgary with the pups along for the ride.

First Stop: We knew we had to hit up the area around Bragg Creek. Elbow Falls is a well known popular local spot but as you can see, with Elbow River winding its way through the park combined with the colourful pallets of fall in the mountain valley, there is a reason this is a favourite spot for many. We took advantage of the open space & quiet day at the Falls to bring their beloved fur babies Cleo & Athena along for some family photos. I love getting the chance to incorporate your dogs into engagement sessions when we have the opportunity. After we had some fun chasing the pups around, some friends came to take them home while we continued on our adventure…

Second Stop: Was a location that may or may not have required a little bit of trespassing, may or may not have been a film location for an Academy Award winning movie, and is most definitely a top secret super special location that we’re gonna keep to ourselves. But it was also the most EPIC location and probably tops my list of favourites so far in Canada. We broke through the trees running, hitting the edge of the ridge and into the open field before the steep drop of a cliff just as the sun hit the peak of the neighbouring mountain. It truly was an amazing sight.

After our epic sunset for S+D’s Rocky Mountain engagement session, we immediately decided drinks + food were in order, and headed off to an amazing dinner at the nearby The Bav + Tav and OMG it was incredible. I have literally spent the last 5 months craving their schnitzel & spätzle – it was THAT good. These two truly treated me to an amazing weekend – it’s hard to believe this was just the first few hours. We had an awesome time exploring for their Rocky Mountain engagement, and I can’t wait to be back in Alberta again for their wedding this year!