Harkness Memorial Park Spring Engagement Session

Just as the weather started acting as it should be- and thank heavens it did- I met up with Eddie + Anna for their engagement session at Harkness Park in Waterford CT. It’s also known as Eloia Mansion, or Harkness Memorial Park, or also one of my very favorite places to photograph, if I am being 100% honest!

When we discussed where we possibly wanted to do their engagement session they said they love to be in nature. Perfect! Well… except for the fact that most of the ‘nature’ in CT by May had still not entirely joined the party that is Spring here. So we showed up to Harkness Park a little hopeful, but mostly had no clue what exactly would be in bloom. Boy were we pleasantly surprised! Even without anything dripping with flowers I knew enough cool spots to duck in for interesting and beautiful photographs. There is cool light, texture, paths, different buildings, so to say I wasn’t really concerned is true. But to show up and have a literal explosion of daffodils there just waiting to greet us was a wonderful and welcome surprise.

We chatted as we stopped at each spot that caught my fancy and I came up with a fun way to meander purposefully around the property so that we hit enough spots and ended up with the warm later afternoon light landing us down for the end of our session. My daughter Georgie was with us and asked some fun questions- one being- what is one movie you can watch over and over and never get tired of it? Get this: Anna’s answer was Love Actually and Eddie’s is Shrek- and THOSE ARE MY TOP TWO MOVIES TOO! Say what?? To say we proceeded to quote Shrek the rest of the session is an understatement! We segued easily into our favorite TV shows and I was interested to hear how Eddie was tasked with teaching Anna what shows were MUST SEE. Like, Friends, The Office, Parks + Rec- I mean, we hit the jackpot for endless quotes and sharing our favorite scenes. We all absolutely loved the episode of Friends where Phoebe tries to teach Joey French!

The afternoon spent with you both flew by, and by the time we ended up on the beach basking in the warm sun, feeling the sand between our toes we couldn’t believe all of the little nooks and crannies we had topped at to create magical photographs! Your wedding day will be here before you know it! I am so excited to see every little cactus detail come to life and meet all of your closest family and friends and just celebrate with everyone!