This past May, Jay surprised Steph with a weekend trip to Redondo Beach, CA. Steph would make plans with friends for the weekend (not knowing Jay was going to steal her away), and Jay would have to call Steph’s friends and cancel in secret. When he finally did tell her what was going on – she had about 20 minutes to pack before heading off to the West Coast. Once they got there, he proposed at sunset… asking an innocent bystander to “take a picture” of them – when really he had set it to video so they could capture the whole thing 🙂

I met Steph + Jay in the South Loop – where most of their relationship has taken place over the past few years. The soon-to-be Mr. and Mrs. met in their junior year at UIC through mutual friends and have been together ever since. Steph is a teacher at a nearby school, and Jay is an auditor who travels for work all the time… always bringing back Steph a Starbucks mug from whatever city he was in. But, despite their cabinet full of coffee mugs from cities all over the country, Chicago is their home – and we definitely wanted to capture it during their session.

We played along the lake for some skyline shots, joking about Jay’s dance moves and threatening to throw Steph in – before heading over to their apartment to get some gorgeous views from their balcony and meet their sweet rescue dog, Monte. I had so much fun meeting all three of you! Congratulations on the engagement and here’s to a stress-free year of planning ahead of you!