Ian + Dea | Rocky Mountain National Park Engagement Session

Holy moly, I don’t think I have ever snort-laughed as hard as I did during Ian and Dea’s fall Rocky Mountain National Park engagement session. These two are F.U.N! I loved how Ian and Dea were just goofy and silly and so real with me the entire time – they did not hold back one bit from showing just how much they stinkin’ love each other! They definitely embraced what I told them at the beginning of the session: to just go all out on for whatever I tell you to do, have fun and just go with the flow – and if I tell you do something goofy just go with it because I know that when I capture 1/400th of a second of your goofiness on my camera it’s because I know it’s going to be a FREEKIN’ AWESOME PICTURE!

I woke up at 3 am to meet Ian and Dea at the entrance to RMNP so we could drive up together to the top of Trail Ridge Road for their sunrise engagement session. Let me tell you, we FROZE OUR TUSHIES OFF! But it was 100% worth every second of it! These two braved the cold to climb up on rocks to get THE BEST sunrise shot.

So to say the least, Ian and Dea are CHAMPS! For waking up early, for looking freekin’ HOTT at 5 in the morning, and for running, frolicing, climing and adventuring around the mountains together. And you can tell that these two just plain LOVE each other to the core. They rocked all the prompts I gave them and took them to a whole new level with having fun and playing around. Apparently Ian is not always the holding hands kind of guy, but during this session he could not keep his hands off of Dea – and I loved every single second of it!

Every single thing about these two was just full of fun and laughter. From the way that Ian rattled off little jokes and made fun of Dea in the most loving way, to Dea and her silly, giant, beautiful smile just cracking up the entire time. These two just love, love, LOVE to have fun together. I swear, you could just put Ian and Dea in a room with nothing else in it and just make them look at each other and they would probably just laugh and crack up the entire time – that’s how happy these two make each other.

September is elk rutting season in Rocky Mountain National park and elk like to come out of the forest at sunrise and sunset, so there were SO MANY ELK EVERYWHERE! (Side note! If you want to know something important about me, I FREEKIN’ LOVE elk rutting season! Ben and I plan a date night every September to go up to RMNP and watch the elk bugle. We set up camping chairs in the back of his truck and cook mac-n-cheese and hot chocolate while we watch all the elk run around.)

At one point on Trail Ridge Road, we oet out of the car and there was a giant bull elk about 30 feet away. So of course we had to get some elk photobombing photos to remember the day. There were just so many fun surprises and adventures in the three hours we spent together: from elk photobombs, to dancing to R. Kelly’s Ignition in the middle of a field, to driving around trying to find the perfect grove of fall colors. Ian and Dea were up for absolutely anything and their engagement photos prove it!

Need a Colorado adventure photographer for your Rocky Mountain National Park engagement session?

Meet Larissa. Larissa is an adventure couples and wedding photographer based out of Colorado. She’d take an adventure in the mountains over shopping + a date night snuggling on the couch over dinner and a movie any day. Larissa’s obsessed with: morning snuggles with her rescue pup, Hazel, hot chocolate, a good book and yoga pants. She believes in making you forget a camera’s even there, that your story is the actual thing she wants to capture on camera and that real, raw moments are more important that perfectly curated poses. Book your Colorado Engagement Photographer.