Philadelphia Engagement Photographer | Graduate Hospital Area | Alison + Reuven

Today’s happy engagement session comes from a couple whose wedding next month will be a jaw-dropper.  I have been excited about it since I first talked to them a year ago.

I finally met with them in person for their engagement session around graduate hospital area.  They live in Brooklyn so the area didn’t matter so much as just getting some great shots so we wandered off to go play.  And play we did!

They met at school and shared the same group of friends.  It seems everyone knew that they should be together.  They lived next door to one another and it took Reuven a little while to pick up what Alison was putting down.  The hints were pretty obvious – like offering to come over to help him fold laundry.  He says the lightbulb moment for him was when he was going to a super divey 18+ bar for a younger friend and Alison offered to go along.  No mere “friend” would be so willing.

It has been over 7 years.

The proposal was quite involved and something inherently difficult for Reuven who lied that day.  A lot.

He left for work that morning with his briefcase and work attire.  He put out a chicken to defrost for her birthday dinner that night, sent Alison texts about work, and even sent her a video from his company’s karaoke party from that day (forwarded from a co-worker).  But of course he wasn’t at work that day and the party was far more than a birthday celebration.

When Alison came home that evening she arrived to 8 dozen mason jars with candles in the backyard and a proposal (and a wasted thawed chicken).  Reuven then rushed her over to their local bar where all of her friends, including two he had gotten to come in from out of state, were there to celebrate together.

Their wedding will be at her mother’s 17 acre farm in Bucks county with DIY projects out the wazoo.  I can’t wait to see it all come together.  I’m kind of hoping Reuven impresses me with his wedding days shoes too.  Just saying.

“The most wonderful of all things in life is the discovery of another human being with whom one’s relationship has a growing depth, beauty and joy as the years increase. This inner progressiveness of love between two human beings is a most marvelous thing; it cannot be found by looking for it or by passionately wishing for it. It is a sort of divine accident, and the most wonderful of all things in life.”
~Sir Hugh Walpole