Real Engagement: Rachel + Matthew in Seattle

Rachel and Matt looks so incredibly happy in these images! Captured by La Luz Photography, the couple headed to a Seattle, Washington park for their June engagement session. I love the diverse landscapes of this shoot; flowering fields, dense forest, and a rock wall! I also adore the dreamy lighting and Rachel and Matt’s obvious chemistry. Be sure to read the great story of how Rachel and Matt met from their photographer:

Eight years ago, Rachel and Matt met on a plane as it made its way to Israel. There must have been something in the air on that fateful Birthright trip, because a 10-day whirlwind jaunt in the Middle East soon seemed destined to become something more everlasting. Upon their return to their respective homes, it was unclear whether they would ever see each other again. However, mere days later Matt appeared at Rachel’s front door, introduced himself to Rachel’s parents, and brought all the fixins’ for falafels. He claimed he was in the neighborhood “to print his pictures at Costco.” It soon became clear, however, that they both wanted to be in the same picture together, so to speak. And so, on their first romantic date, they opened a joint Costco membership and printed lots of pictures on-the-cheap. Over the course of the next year, they found themselves flung far and wide, with Matt studying abroad in Prague for 4 months and Rachel spending the summer in Spain and Portugal with a friend. Some trips they managed to make together, too — traveling to Chicago only 2 months after they first met, where Rachel met Matt’s wonderful parents and his terrifying dog, Kramer. Alas, wanderlust seemed a theme for this young relationship, as Rachel decided to hang her hat in Colorado for college, while Matt held down the fort in Seattle. As a fairly rational couple, they never intended to do the whole “long-distance thing” but that rational thought didn’t last long for various reasons. Rachel soon found that most of the new friends on her freshman dorm all were also in long-distance relationships. What a happy surprise! Big shocker, though, most of those relationships ended mere months (weeks, or days) later. However, four years (and an embarrassingly large carbon footprint) later, Matt and Rachel were happily reunited in Seattle.”