This is What Dreams are Made of

Mellie has been dreaming of this day since the days of writing xoxo & passing notes in the hallway, so it’s no surprise their engagement session looked like it came straight out of a Disney Movie!  But guys, this love story is better than anything ole Walt could come up with, because this love story.. this love story is scripted by God himself.  You can see it in the way they look at each other & even it’s even clearer in the way he makes her giggle  😍- it won’t take you long to scroll and see what we mean- but don’t stop your scrolling too soon because just like their love story, this blog just gets..

Better with Time

Luke is certainly marrying his best friend– in fact that’s how this love story really began! Somewhere in between their families fun at the creek and Mellie riding the four wheelers better than the boys, these two fell in love with their best friend ❤️  We’ve been blessed to photograph Luke popping the question, their stunning engagement session, and we can’t wait for their wedding this summer! But YOU GUYS – watching high school crushes mature into a Christ centered love is something we really don’t have adequate words to describe- but that’s why we LOVE what we do- because when our words fail us, the images can bring the story to life for you! 🤗

Rain is a Good Thing

May be famous words from Luke Bryan, but in their case rain for our original session date caused us to move the session to a day with the MOST MAGICAL sunset! It was the perfect ending to a fairytale session (JUST WAIT UNTIL YOU SEE THE END- D.E.A.D 👏🏻) so we have to say rain is a GREAT thing!  We always cringe when we open our weather apps to see that the weather isn’t promising to give us the great weather that we believe our couples deserve. With so much planning that goes in to this session, we hate having to suggest to change the date they’ve been planning for. But this is just another reason we named our business REFUGE– because even when things in the wedding process may not go as planned, we always want our couples to know they can find Refuge in the fact that we will always make it work for what is best for THEM! 😉 Looking back now, changing their session date was actually God’s way of making sure everything worked out perfectly (His timing ALWAYS proves to be better than ours 🙌🏻) because Mellie’s (TO DIE FOR) dress was a little delayed for our original date- which brings us to have to mention, these two were

Dressed to Perfection

Seriously, these two look like they walked straight off the pages of our style guide! The only issue this caused is some SERIOUS over-clicking of our cameras because we just could not get enough of these two!!  They also whole-heartedly trusted us to choose their locations, and oh-em-gee!!!! After these location gold-mine finds on the beautiful Mississippi Gulf Coast, we may or may not have wanted to never come home 😬😍Refuge Couples look out because you’ll be seeing these two from cover to cover in our updated style guide- it won’t take you much scrolling to see why 🤤

Mellie & Luke

Thank you falls short in what we would like to express to you two, but we are going to say it anyways- THANK YOU for letting us be a small part of y’all’s big love! It wasn’t the perfectly paired outfits, the to die for location, the cotton-candy colored sunset, or that you two killed every pose we threw your way with the cutest giggles.. it’s the fact that we get to be a part of what we know is just the beginning of your BEST days- and getting to have extra hang-out time and all you can eat seafood buffets with you two are huge bonuses (and ALWAYS a good idea) too 😉  We love you both and we’re counting down the days for the fairytale to continue at Greengates Farmhouse this August!!

Love & Big Hugs,

Anna & Ryan