Happy Friday everybody! It feels like Fall today and I don’t mind one bit. But let me state for the record I am not ready for snow! A couple weekends ago we had the opportunity to head up to Steamboat to shoot Chris and Tiana’s beautiful mountain Wedding! Despite the weather report predicting rain every hour (at 90% chance no less!), JUST as we began taking photos the rain stopped. What’s more once we started taking Chris and Tiana’s photos the clouds parted and the sun came out! Judging by the weather the night before and earlier in the day I did NOT see that happening. Chris and Tiana were able to move forward with their beautiful outdoor ceremony at the Yampa River Botanic Park followed by a Reception at the Steamboat Springs Community Center.
A little background on these two…they actually live in Bellevue, WA but chose a destination Wedding in Steamboat because that is where their love story began. Here is the story of how it all started, in Chris’s words because he tells it so eloquently…
“I have met someone you are absolutely going to love!!” So said my mother in the summer of 2006 after meeting Beth Hartung’s new roommate named Tiana Schwartzburg. It turns out that she was absolutely correct; it was just going to take some time and effort before we would have the opportunity to find out. Late in the summer of 2010, Tiana and I found ourselves in Steamboat Springs, CO having both recently become single and I might suggest that we both also had some interest in spending a little time together…just the two of us. Unfortunately, at that time I was preparing for a move to France for my last year of grad school. Fortunately, Tiana loves to travel and she hadn’t been to England or France yet.
As Christmas 2010 approached, Tiana was again going to be in Steamboat and I was planning a surprise visit. At which time, we seemed to just pick up where we had left off from the previous summer. Skype became our medium, as conversations evolved from occasional, to every couple days, to daily and eventually multiple times a day. My morning was her evening and visa versa, which provided at least two opportunities to talk between her work and my classes.
As I mentioned before, Tiana is known to have a fondness for travel and so I invited her to visit me in France, hoping the combination of seeing some of Europe as well as spending some time with me might lure her across the “pond”. When she revealed to me that she had bought a ticket to visit me in Europe I was absolutely ecstatic. And so, in February of 2011, our first trip together became a reality when we met in London, England and subsequently ventured to my town of Lille, France and eventually Paris. In London we made our relationship official and in Paris we first expressed the nature of our feelings for each other. I will admit that her departure left me feeling thrilled at what I saw as the potential of our relationship. While at the same time, so alone there in France, I couldn’t wait to be with Tiana again.
A brief weekend wedding in Atlanta, GA the following April, was our next opportunity to be together and was shortly followed by the end of grad school for me and a return to the U.S. to find a job. Naturally, I made my way back to Steamboat Springs, CO where Tiana lived, worked and where we could be together.
Fast forward to August 2013, a couple states and homes together later, and Chris popped the question. At which point they started planning their beautiful Steamboat, CO Wedding! Chris and Tiana, you are such a lovely couple inside and out and we felt so privileged to be apart of your big day. I can’t wait to share your GORGEOUS Day After Session very soon!
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