Wowa, these two brought some good energy to their shoot. Katelyn, Courtney, and I started planning the session a few months back and had to reschedule a few times due to weather, but finally a beautiful spring day came along!! Throughout the shoot, I loved hearing about their experiences at JMU, everything they were involved in, and their exciting plans for the future. Courtney has two sales jobs she’s deciding between and Katelyn is heading to Florence, Italy this August for 10 months while pursuing JMU’s Master’s in Political Science Program!! So much fun!! Keep on reading to see some fun champagne candids and to hear about the touching story behind Courtney’s graduation cap.

Love their caps!!

Katelyn’s cap was so impressive! Katelyn included a world since she loves traveling (BA in International Affairs) with two hearts marking Harrisonburg and Florence, letters for the Delta Phi Epsilon International Society, letters representing her involvement in the University Program Board, one of her favorite quotes, and a shout out to  her mom and dad.

Ya’ll are gonna tear up when you hear the back story behind Courtney’s cap! Every year when she was little, Courtney and her dad would go to the local farm stand together and pick out a sunflower when they were in season. To him, Courtney was his “little sunshine” and sunflowers were their thing. On this day 8 years ago, Courtney’s dad passed away…and to this day sunflowers are what remind Courtney of him most.  Sophomore year of college Courtney was studying in Spain, and one night when their group passed a tattoo parlor her friend jokingly asked “who’s getting a tattoo tonight?!” Courtney exclaimed “I will!” and an hour later she came out with her first tattoo. Courtney told me, “I never thought I would get one, but I always knew that if I did it would be of a sunflower.” We took a few photos of  her tattoo later in the shoot, so keep scrolling to see that. Thanks for letting me share such a beautiful story Courtney 🙂

And thennnn…the champagne came out. Oh yes.
So funny! As we were setting up, Katelyn’s cork unexpectedly whizzed off and was inches from hitting Courtney!! Such a great reaction.

Courtney’s sunflower tattoo!!