For much of my life, I grew up in Washington County, so today’s Washington & Jefferson College engagement session hits close to home. After a simple tweet lead to a first date, Lia and Alex quickly became college sweethearts and they’ve been inseparable ever since. To celebrate their impending nuptials, they returned to the place where they met and fell in love. Not only does their alma mater hold a special place in their hearts, but it’s also an incredibly photogenic spot for an engagement portrait session. After being forced to reschedule due to inclement weather, Kristin Sanderson Photography and the couple were blessed with a gorgeously sunny fall day. Taking in some of the most iconic architecture and hot spots on campus, the pair looked casual, flirty, and super in love. If that isn’t a recipe for a breathtaking engagement shoot, we don’t know what is!
About the Couple
We met when my roommate and I went to a party the first weekend of sophomore year at W&J. We became friends pretty fast and I think everyone knew we were eventually going to date, but I wasn’t really interested in a relationship with him. But that all changed with one little tweet about wanting someone to go see The Little Mermaid musical with. Approximately 30 seconds after posting the tweet, Alex calls me saying he got us tickets to go see it. There we were, two days later, on our first date, sitting in the top row of the Byham.
We decided to take a trip to DC the first weekend in April to go to the Cherry Blossom Festival. The morning of April 7, 2018, we went to brunch before heading over to the Tidal Basin. Once we got there, we walked along the path looking at the trees when we came across one that had a beautiful branch hanging down along the water and framing the Washington Monument behind it. I asked Alex to take my picture and then we started to move along the path again when a couple came up and asked if we wanted a picture together. Well, Alex used this as an opportunity (completely unplanned) to get down on one knee and ask me to marry him! Shout out to that couple that took amazing pictures of the entire experience for us!
About the Session
I think having our engagement session where we met was really important to us, especially because W&J has such a photogenic campus. We wanted to do a shoot in a place where we were comfortable and spent most of our time as a couple. We also knew we wanted it in the fall since our wedding is also going to be in the fall. Plus, we just love the fall colors and the lighting is always extra great in October. It was also really fun seeing Kristin transform a rundown building or a random sidewalk into the most beautiful photo ever taken!
