This Tucson desert engagement session at Gates Pass just gives us all the feels! Jessica and Dan are an incredibly sweet couple that we met from our previous bride and groom, Zoe and Martin, whose wedding we had the joy of photographing this past April. We met Jessica and Dan for the first time then at the wedding, but didn’t get a lot of time to chat. So it was really fun to get to know them both during our time together last weekend for their engagement session!

During the planning stages, Jessica had mentioned several times that she wanted to showcase the beauty of our desert surroundings in their engagement photos. Being that both Bryan and I are longtime desert dwellers, it’s easy for us to forget just how gorgeous the natural landscape is in Tucson. It’s been some time since we’ve gotten to explore the local desert, so when we got the opportunity to shoot at Gates Pass, it was such a delightful reminder of how lucky we are to call this place home! After pushing our start time out by a little and a certain mishap with a cactus and my foot (don’t worry, my foot survived the incident!), we were treated to the delicious desert glow that becomes visible around sunset. Friends, the desert certainly does not disappoint! Not to mention, Jessica and Dan braved the heat and didn’t break a sweat. Consider us impressed! Especially since they both moved here from Chicago a year ago, which has drastically different weather!

Dan proposed to Jessica when they arrived here in Tucson last year. With only a Uhaul and their rescue pup, Alpine, they moved across the country to our city of Tucson for Dan’s job. After they settled in to their new home next to Sabino Canyon, Dan popped the question during a walk in the desert nearby their new home. Of course, Jessica excitedly said yes! Cheerful celebration took place afterwards as their family gathered to congratulate them.

We always say engagement sessions are the perfect time for us to capture intimate, carefree, and fun images of our couples all while they get comfortable in front of our cameras before the wedding day. Being able to get to know our couples personally helps us to understand their dynamic, which in turn helps us to craft their unique, one-of-a-kind love story, and also gets us so excited for their wedding day! We’re already looking forward to next year when Jessica and Dan get married at the Stillwell House here in Tucson. We loved our time spent together with these two and we hope you enjoy this Gates Pass desert engagement session just as much as we did! It was a perfect Sunday evening and a beautiful start to our summer season!