Philadelphia Area Engagement Photographer | Valley Forge National Park | Marisa + RJ

It isn’t every day that I head out for an engagement session hours after receiving an inquiry from a couple.  I was happy to meet up with Marisa and RJ on a stunning fall afternoon at the place that holds so much importance to them: Valley Forge National Park.

To have some understanding of why this place is so special, we need to go back about 10 years when they first met while working on a project together at work.  Marisa job has her traveling all over the world at a constant pace so it wasn’t until 3 years later when she found herself back in the Philly area and contacted RJ just to catch up over dinner.

It grew from there across continents and oceans.

Marisa went to Villanova and, as a runner, would take to the hills at Valley Forge to train.  On her visits back to the area to see RJ, they both found themselves trekking through the park together for runs, picnicking, and just relaxing.

Running is a huge part of their lives.  When I had met them, they had just run 3 half marathons in the previous 5 weeks.

It was one week earlier that RJ had brought Marisa to this hill in the park to watch people fly toy planes down below.  He asked her to marry him as the sun set.

They are playful and laugh so easily around one another.  Marisa has a healthy skepticism of anything that comes out of RJs mouth.  I believe they might have picked up some new words during our session: “canoodling” and “smitten”.

It was a fantastic afternoon and I can’t wait to hear about their wedding plans as they shake out.  Somewhere tropical perhaps?  The world is theirs.

The pain of parting is nothing to the joy of meeting again.
~ Charles Dickens, Nicholas Nickleby