Jess & John's Engagement Session | Oakhurst Park | Atlanta Destination Wedding Photographer

We seriously love Jess and John =). Jessica is one of Betty’s very first friends from Orlando when they worked for the same company. Besides working together Jess also lived about a half a mile away from us in Downtown Orlando  so we were frequent house guests for Jess’ amazing cooking on her Sunday night dinners and dancing partners for a Saturday night on the town. I first met Jess on my first date with Betty, so I can say I’ve known her for almost as long as Betty – Betty wins by about 6 hours =). Okay so enough about us and them, Jess and John as a couple have an amazing story in their own right. You see as I mentioned, Jess lived in Orlando with us and John… well he lived in California. John’s sister (also a Jessica – Jess B) worked with Betty and Jess C, and John was visiting his sister one weekend when the sparks flew between Jess and John. I remember hearing the stories of their long distance romance as love blossomed, with them alternating visits every other week or so between California and Orlando. I think the jetlag alone would have killed me but these two committed love birds made it work for a long time before John was able to get a transfer to Orlando.

And then of course this love story had to take another twist. Within maybe a week of John finally moving to the same city, state, and coast as Jess; Jess left Orlando for an amazing job opportunity in Atlanta. Jess moved up here with us right after Betty and I moved to Atlanta and shortly thereafter, John picked up and moved yet again to Atlanta to be with Jess.

On the bright side Betty and I were recent transplants to Atlanta and now we had an instant couple we knew in the city as well! While it was great that Jess and John were finally together, Jess was still traveling pretty heavily for her job as a consultant. They had just bought a cute house in Oakhurst right on the border with Decatur so John was able to keep himself pretty well occupied fixing things around the house and making Atlanta their new permanent home. John and I went running frequently before I dropped out of the program with Miles’ pending arrival and the loss of any free time.

Things eventually turned out perfectly for these two, and with the hard work they both put in I wouldn’t have expected anything else. Even in this tough market John was able to find a job at a local company in his field. Jess, finally burnt out from the life on the road as a traveling consultant and ready to actually enjoy her new house is now in an awesome role at a local Fortune 500 company.

Which brings us to their engagement. I think all of us, their friends and family, expected it to happen fairly soon now that all of the pieces were in place you could say, both of them were employed in the same city and living together in their new house. They had been together through thick and thin already, and yet they continued to make it work together. I won’t bore you too much with the story itself because John retells the details in the video I filmed of him while we were getting ready to go shoot their engagement session. It’s definitely a cute story though that ties together John’s time in California while they were first dating and “planting the seeds” of their life together here in Atlanta.

As I hinted at on Friday the engagement session itself was probably the toughest I had ever had to photograph. Not because the lighting was difficult or the camera was broken… but because it was hard to draw out the essence of these two that I wanted to capture in those photographs. Being a couple I knew so well, I also knew maybe TOO MUCH about them that I already had a specific look in my head. Add that to the fact that Jess and John didn’t really want to have me photographing them YET AGAIN, and it was a challenging evening after work.

We walked over to Oakhurst Park and snapped some photos around the park before grabbing some drinks and appetizers at a restaurant down the street. Jess and John didn’t really want engagement photos done but we shot a couple anyway to create a cover for their engagement announcement card that Candice (Jess’ Mom) really wanted them to send out. Even though Jess and John have a ton of friends, with many in Atlanta because Jess went to undergrad and grad school here, they decided to do a low-key ceremony in the place they got engaged: Playa del Carmen, Mexico.

Betty and I are super excited to spend a few days with Jess and John in February in Mexico celebrating an intimate wedding ceremony on the beach. Jess really wants this to be more of a 4-day party and not a formal wedding so I will really be in my element capturing tons and tons of fun candids throughout the long weekend. I just really need to up my exercise game and get a beach body in the next 5 months!!

Thank you so much Jess and John for putting up with me to do this engagement session against you will, lol! I still had a great time and it was my warm up for you wedding day =). In between cocktails and Coronas on the beach we are going to get some amazing images of you two together and I promise to only make you two pose for photos for the shortest amount of time possible!!! Then it’s back to celebrating with your friends and family!! We are sincerely blessed to be spending your special day together and cannot wait for February to celebrate with you two!

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Zachary Long and Betty Feng are destination wedding photographers in Atlanta, Georgia. While we only recently added the “destination” tag to ourselves we have two great out of town weddings already on the books for 2012 including Jess and John’s destination wedding at Playa del Carmen in Mexico! View our wedding photography portfolio at http://www.FengLongPhoto.com/ and use the contact us form to inquire about 2012 wedding availability! Also just announced we will be at two bridal shows here in the Atlanta Metro area in 2012, come see us at the Georgia Bridal Show on January 8th at Gwinnett Center and on January 22nd at Cobb Galleria.