While a lot of time has passed since I had these cuties in front of my camera, I can still remember the feeling of absolute PANIC the week leading up to their session. You see… they were only in town for one weekend during the tail end of blossom season, and they were really dreaming of having some gorgeous portraits taken together amongst the iconic blooms. I knew that the high wind and rain could knock the delicate blooms off the branches… so our only option was to proceed as planned, rain or shine!

Fast forward to the morning of their Washington DC cherry blossom anniversary portraits, and I met Alanna and John on the corner near where we would begin their session. After I briefly joked about their trust in meeting a stranger from the internet… at dawn… in the pouring rain, they quickly started to feel like old friends! These two love to laugh, are fast to welcome you into their circle, and are naturals in front of the camera… something I was SO grateful for because we had to work FAST in between raindrops!

Alanna and John are such a badass couple!

They are both in the Army, and while much of their days are spent traveling, the time that they do get to spend together is so precious! They met back in college, living next door to each other. They were friends for the longest time. At the time, Alanna was working at the library as a math tutor and didn’t have a car. John asked for help with math in exchange for rides home… needless to say, they spent lots of time laughing, and not much time studying, but it worked out in the best possible way! Turns out, John didn’t really need tutoring and just wanted an excuse to spend a little more time with Alanna!

While Mother Nature brought nothing but rain for their Washington DC cherry blossom anniversary portraits, these two brought alllll the sunshine!

The blossoms held on for their session, and we were able to get a lot done in between rain clouds! I’m so glad these two trusted me because WOW I am pretty much obsessed with what we were able to create together. Best yet, because of the rain in the forecast, we basically had the whole place to ourselves… something that is SO rare during blossom season and pretty much unheard of on a weekend morning!

I could go on and on about how sweet these two are, but I think it may be best to just let the photos speak for themselves! Enjoy the last scroll through the gorgeous 2023 blossoms!

We finished over at the Lincoln Memorial for some fun personality portraits in shirts they scooped up on vacation!

If you enjoyed this blog post, you may also like:

DC CHERRY BLOSSOM MINI SESSIONS | 2023 BLOSSOM RECAP

YOUR GUIDE TO YOUR TIDAL BASIN CHERRY BLOSSOM ENGAGEMENT SESSION | WEDDING PLANNING

MAGNOLIA BLOSSOM MATERNITY PORTRAITS IN BALTIMORE | MEGHAN AND SEAN