Kat & Brett’s Engagement Session | Golden Gate Canyon State Park | Colorado Engagement Photography | Jeep Wrangler Engagements | Cannonball Brewery Beer Photos | Apollo Fields

The crunch of pine needles under your hiking boots. The kind nods of strangers walking by. The mountain wind that sings aspens into a dance also fills your lungs with movement. The comfort of adventuring in Colorado where the unknown trail feels like a well worn couch. Sink your soul into nature and the wild woodland sounds will lull you to sleep. A community of one in the safe outdoors—or better yet—bring a friend or two and set the trail ablaze with laughter and conversation. Expand your community, bring people together, and fill your heart with trust.

Hiking Golden Gate Canyon State Park with Kat and Brett for their outdoor engagement session felt just like this. Light with laughter and steeped in love. It made me miss living in Colorado, but it made me grateful for the communities we’re helping bring together. “Talking with a friend about friends you meet and I’m so glad we met,” Kat said in a text yesterday, and I couldn’t agree more. We cross paths with strangers and acquaintances on city sidewalks, hiking trails in the woods, and in line at supermarkets—and it is up to us to decide who we should invite into our lives.

Kat and I met working at Oasis Brewing Company together and I still love to use that space as our hub for connecting when we’re back in town. Firstly, because beer; secondly, because of the honest and kind-hearted eyes of Morianne and Erik Smith that welcome me back into that building; and thirdly, because the beautifully decorated rustic modern space is a comfortable and conducive atmosphere for meetups of all sizes. By purposefully perpetuating relationships out of this space (I’m not forgetting you Kael and Kelly), Heather and I hope to cultivate long-lasting friendships that never end at the bottom of the glass.

When we met up at the brewery this past Monday, we held a meeting with Matt and Julie, a couple potential (now actual!) clients, followed by an open invitation to all of our friends in the area. The turnout exceeded our expectations, including climbing buddies, fellow industry professionals, old friends, horse barn neighbors, and even a couple, Meghan and Armand, whose wedding we shot in the summer of 2018. Meghan and Armand were the real MVPs of the meetup as they beamed with happiness, recounting to Matt and Julie just how positive their experience with us was. Funny thing is, the meeting of these two couples was unintentional if not downright serendipitous, because we didn’t tell most of our friends that we were coming early to meet with Matt and Julie. Yet because we choose to cultivate relationships with our couples and with people in spaces that mean something to us, we continue to connect and create communities.

It’s that same feeling that washes over us when we take our puppers on a walk in the woods. It’s a community of one turning into a community of many, linked by trust and adventure. We’ve only known Kat and Brett, Erik and Morianne, Kael and Kelly, and now Meghan and Armand for a year or two, but as we hike forward towards the future, we aim to bring the Matt and Julie’s into our community one couple at a time.