Heather & Eric || A Very Duke Engagement

Every Friday (or most Fridays, anyway), Heather would go to a wine tasting with friends. It was the same group of people every week--regulars--and that group included Eric. Though Heather enjoyed Eric's company, she wasn't too sure about dating him--their mutual friends tried to convince her to give him a chance, but it wasn't until Eric quit smoking because he knew Heather hated it that she saw how serious he was about taking their friendship to a new level. After a year and a half of dating, Eric proposed to Heather on a Viking Cruise on the Danube (in a very complicated story involving surgery, delayed flights, and lots of painkillers, which is better told by them than me!), and they will be getting married this September.

Since their relationship has so far been filled with much craziness and fun, it only makes sense that I had a tumultuous relationship with their engagement session. We had scheduled it for one of those undecided Southern weather days, where the forecast tells that the skies could open up and pour anywhere at any time. I was a little ball of anxiety all day leading up to their session, trying to predict what the storm might do. Fortunately, it decided to skirt Durham after some few showers, leaving the air a bit cooler if no less humid, and doing us the grand favor of clearing the majority of visitors out of Duke Gardens. After we had finished strolling around the Gardens, as Heather and Eric are both avid Duke sports fans, we headed over to two of their favorite places in America: Cameron Indoor and Wallace Wade Stadiums. The hazy summer light was beautiful, and shooting with them was so much fun! Can't wait for their wedding in September! (More from their engagement session on Facebook.)

Jeanine & Leslie || A Durham Central Park Family Engagement

Jeanine and Leslie were referred to us by our awesome friend Gretchen of RedBird Events, who is coordinating their wedding celebration for later this summer. (Jeanine and Leslie got legally married in DE last year, and are now getting wedding'd in wonderfully Durham-y style.) When I first started emailing with Jeanine, we uncovered some uncanny coincidences: She grew up in Hampton Roads (where Mike was stationed for his last five years in the Navy), she coached softball at Lafayette College (which is just a few miles from where Mike and I grew up in the Lehigh Valley), and now we have Durham in common--we're a match made in photographic heaven!

Since Jeanine and Leslie love Durham just as much as we do, they wanted to have their engagement session in a spot that's iconic for the city, and Durham Central Park made perfect sense. Their adorable twin daughters--who turned two the day before our session!--weren't about to get left out, and while they weren't super psyched at having to wait to get ice cream (who would be?), they pranced around, tried to eat some rocks, and snuggled with their mommies and were adorable all the same. (And I mean, their little coordinating outfits? Too much!) We can't wait for more hip cuteness from Jeanine and Leslie's August wedding! In the meantime, enjoy their engagement session images below! (More on Facebook.)

Note from Mike & Kate: Here seems as good a place as any to say, unequivocally, that we are proud and emphatic allies. While we love Durham and much about the Triangle, we think it's stupid that Jeanine and Leslie--and lots of other LGBTQIA folks--had to go outside the place they call home in order to make their marriage official. We aren't particularly fussed about how you structure your relationship, as long as you are cool people and fun to be around! Until the North Carolinian legislature and citizenry gets its collective head out of its collective butt and ratifies some sort of statute to grant same-sex couples what Mike and I (and many other right-thinking folks) conceive as a universal human right, we will continue to support all LGBTQIA dudes in constructing whatever sort of marriage/wedding/commitment/fill-in-the-blank celebration seems most fun and perfect for them. Yay!

Devin & Kyle || A Bennett Place Engagement

Devin and Kyle met in ROTC at Duke. He was the dashing upperclassman, she the fresh-faced cheerleader. They both grew up in military families, and Devin especially moved around a lot as a child. They fell in love at Duke and are making their home together in Durham. Devin graduated from Duke only a week before our session. (Yay, Devin!) Their original wedding plans were upset a bit by the revelation that the Duke Chapel will be closing for renovations for the entirety of summer 2015--they ended up switching their wedding to the very last date on which the Chapel will be holding ceremonies! We started our session at the gorgeous and historic Bennett Place, where Devin and Kyle's sweet six-month-old puppy Elsa (yes, named after the Frozen character!) got a good romp in the grass; but it only seemed fitting that we spend our second hour in the place that is so dear to their hearts, and so we headed over to the beautiful grounds around Duke Chapel. Devin and Kyle are the sweetest of the sweet, and we look forward to their wedding next April. Enjoy some images from their session below! (More on Facebook.)