Arielle & Andrey | Rock Creek Park Washington DC Engagement

Arielle and Andrey have such a quiet ease about them, but as soon as I walked through their front door, their rambunctious golden retriever Sammy jumped up on me and gave me a very large and very excitable doggo hug. Once Sammy chilled a bit, we took a walk around their Washington DC neighborhood to capture their adorable little family.

Once we were done torturing the pup with modeling duties, we headed over to Rock Creek Park, which was gorgeously outfitted in fall colors. We took a stroll and found some beautiful rivers and many, MANY picnic tables. You would assume that there would be some benches in a park, but none of us saw ONE. Strange, DC, strange.

And then there were bears. “What do you mean by bears,” you say? I mean…bears. Stuffed ones. Wearing a tuxedo and a wedding dress, respectively. I never quite got the backstory on why Arielle and Andrey had said bears, but we obviously put them in a couple shots as you’ll see below.

Photographing these two was so lovely! Arielle and I were friends in NYC before she moved, so we got to reconnect and I got to hear her love story which touched my heart! Her and Andrey met long distance and worked with that difficult task for years before finally coming together in DC. They devoted themselves to each other even with that barrier and I found that to be so inspiring and beautiful. After the first time they met, Arielle actually specifically made and excuse to come back to DC and see him, and history was made! Annnd she might be a little bit of a stalker, but it’s ok ;).

Arielle and Andrey, I loved exploring your DC neighborhood and park with you! Thank you for being game to play in the leaves and share your love with me!

Love,

Sydney