Any chance I get to travel for a portrait session in Arizona, I take. That was certainly the case for Sarah’s sweet Arizona desert maternity session!

Sarah and Tyler first reached out in December, short on time. Unfortunately, their previously scheduled photographer had to cancel the week of their shoot. With Sarah being 32 weeks pregnant, the couple reached out to me, after reviewing countless other talented photographer’s websites to find a replacement, on short notice. Luckily, I still had a few dates available into the New Year and was so, so happy to help the sweet, expecting couple!

Sarah revealed that she and Tyler LOVE how bright and natural my photos are and would feel incredibly lucky to get the chance to work with me. I was beyond flattered at such kind words. And during our initial conversations, we clicked right away. Sarah immediately felt like an old friend and I couldn’t wait to work with her!

When I first connect with my clients, I love to learn more about their lives. The way Sarah briefly shared their story was SO charming I can’t help but share shortly here as well.

Sarah and Tyler met when they were 18 (18!) on the beautiful campus of Grand Canyon University in Phoenix, Arizona. They actually lived in the same dorm, as fate would have it. Tyler made the first move by messaging Sarah on Facebook, complimenting her Chacos (seriously, so awesome)! Sarah and Tyler dated, focused on their studies until graduation, then re-focused on one another after completing their studies. Tyler proposed magnificently at the Grand Canyon sometime later, when the two just couldn’t wait any longer, brimming with excitement to start their lives together. And the rest is history! Sarah and Tyler were very happily married January 3rd!

Because their anniversary date was close to our scheduled shoot, I couldn’t help getting a little anniversary present for them (an elegant frame to display one of the sweet images from our portrait session). I’m a gift giver. I love finding little ways to go above and beyond to make my clients happy.

On that note, we had originally planned the session in Flagstaff for January 1st (New Year’s Day). Seeing a huge snowstorm on the horizon a few days before, we swapped locations to the stunning desert down south!

Until a torrential rainstorm caused us to reschedule the next weekend.

All that being said, a HUGE shoutout to Sarah and Tyler remaining flexible with the winter weather. The flexibility worked very much in our favor – the weather was ABSOLUTELY perfect for our new date, January 6th, as you can see from the images below.

Sarah and Tyler are without a doubt one of the loveliest couples I’ve ever met. They were SO excited for their shoot! We had such a wonderful time capturing these stunning Arizona desert maternity session images! It’s always SO hard to choose which images to share as part of the journal entries when we captured SO MANY stunning shots! If you’d like to see the entire gallery, please send me a note from the Contact page on my website, I’d love to share!

You can see more beautiful, expecting families I’ve worked with by browsing the journal. Take a look at Chelsea and Stephen’s Flagstaff Mountain Meadow Maternity Session next and follow along on Instagram for upcoming sneak peek images!