Ingrid has been waiting for months; waiting for the government to give its stamp of approval on her pending marriage to Simon, her bit o’ English stuff. I remember what it was like waiting for Andy to get his visa to come live & work here in the States. And, I can tell you, it can be a long, anxious, exciting, frustrating, thrilling, scary, nail-biting process.

Like Ingrid, we had been waiting too; waiting to hear when Simon would come back over so we could take photos of these two international love birds. Well, a couple of weeks ago, we got the call.

Heeee’s heeerrrre!

I swear, I was almost as excited as Ingrid. Their story sent memories of my own bubbling back up to the surface. (For those of you who don’t know, Andy…my better half…is English. We got married almost 8 years ago, after the government also gave our nuptials a shining stamp of approval.)

Like Andy & I, Ingrid & Simon met in another country. Unlike us (we met in Spain, doing nothing terribly good or productive), Ingrid & Simon met in Fiji, where they were doing some volunteer work, namely surveying coral reefs, for Coral Cay Conservation.

“We lived on a desert island and when I first saw her, I looked at her, walked past the window she was in and then turned around and did the same thing another 2 times,” Simon told us. “I tried to be Mr. Cool, and after about three weeks of seeing each other, I told her I was going to New Zealand and would she like to come.  I had no intention of going there until I met Ingrid…just could not leave her, I guess, and now look!  It was the most amazing few months.  I think I fell in love with her in a couple of minutes, literally.”

“When I first saw Simon he was so cute, all tan and bleached blond from the Fiji sun,” Ingrid remembered. “When I first got there, all the new people had to stay in the room that no one wanted to be in. It was dark, hot, cramped. There was one bed left in the nice room, his room. He made sure I got that bed. He really knows how to get what he wants….including me.”

After Fiji, and then New Zealand, Ingrid & Simon spent two years together in London. But, eventually, Ingrid moved back to the states and the relationship ended….at least temporarily.

They kept in touch and about a year ago, Simon invited Ingrid to come over and join him at the Royal Air Force Summer Ball.

We had not seen each other in two years, but I figured…(it’s) now or never,” Ingrid said. “When I got there, we had a great time. It was like we had never separated. That was the weekend that we got engaged. The rest is history.”

Because Simon was in the Royal Air Force and he & Ingrid love to travel, we thought it might be fun to shoot their engagement session at a tiny, and totally adorable, airport not far from us. This was our first meeting with Simon, and he pretty quickly told us he didn’t like having his photo taken. We were skeptical, especially when after 2 minutes of shooting he confessed that he thought it would be cool to be a model and seemed pretty keen on taking off his shirt. (Sorry, Simon, but the truth hurts!….I only feel comfortable poking fun at Simon because he has that classic British sense of humor, which I love SO much! Oh, and just for the record Simon…you could totally be a model!)

Thunder clouds loomed overhead the entire shoot and eventually the skies cast down buckets of rain. But, we had an absolute blast and got some amazing photos. Check out a few of our faves! Enjoy!

We thought we’d loosen them up with a little jumping. It doesn’t seem right, but Ingrid even looks gorgeous jumping…what’s up with that? And, Simon struck the classic Bruce Forsyth pose for his jump. Unless you’re British, this won’t mean anything to you, but it cracked Andy & Simon up.

I played around with Photoshop on this image to give it an old photo look….somehow it just seemed a cool contradiction for such an informal “pose.” What do you think?

Flying high on love….awww!

Seriously, are they cute or what?

Snuggle time…

I just love the colorful planes in the background.

But, it’s Ingrid’s sweet, heart-felt expression that make this next one a fave!

Sasssssy!

A pilot at the air field needed to log in some practice time, so he did a couple of fly overs for us….very fun!

Andy has a wonderful way of using layering in his photos…I just love this next one…peeking through the wings of a plane!

And, I’m a big fan of the blurry stuff in the foreground…tall grass is a favorite of mine! But, again, real…joyful expressions always make a photo sing!

totally sweet…

Something tells me these two will live long, happy lives laughing as much as they do!

This could be my favorite of the day….the contentment in their faces makes my heart smile! And, as I often say…there is no place better in the world to be than in the arms of the one who loves you. Perfection!

Playing Mr. Cool again!

Is this an ad for Ralph Lauren or what?

Simon had us cracking up the whole session…..this was just a completely candid moment walking away at the end of the session and I just love it. To me, it sums up Ingrid & Simon’s relationship and our afternoon with them!

Big thanks Ingrid & Simon for taking time out of your brief visit together to spend a couple of hours with us. We had such a blast with you two and can’t wait to be there with you when you walk down the aisle next month. Something tell us it’s going to be a wonderful celebration of love, laughter and all things happy! Thank you again for choosing us to document this special time for you! Big hugs, Christine & Andy xo