back

Featured

Nashville Engagement Session: Summer, At Home

A Nashville engagement session with Millie and Will.
A Nashville engagement session with Millie and Will.

This engagement session with Millie and Will takes me back to those gorgeous Nashville sunlit evenings when it felt like the days had no end.

Nashville now feels like a tundra and it’s got me wondering: does the January cold have anyone else pining for summertime and picnics?

Whenever a couple asks for advice or inspiration for their engagement session, I encourage them to pick what their favorite date night may be — in Nashville, in Atlanta, or right at home. (This is always the most fun. We get to know each other along the way; y’all get to dress up (or down!) and have a great time — everyone wins!)

Millie and Will, for example, let me know that their favorite activities together are take picnics and play board games. It only made sense to plan for an engagement session at home, featuring their dear cat and sweet mementoes from the life they’ve built here together. It is easily one of my favorite engagement sessions to date.

To make this happen, we put our heads together on what elements to feature most. we lucked into a day with beautiful weather (this light, y’all!), wore lightweight clothing, and had a ball. They spread out their favorite picnic blanket, brought out the handmade scrapbook of their adventures together, and settled into being completely themselves.

The light for their engagement session that evening was particularly spectacular, peeking through their living room windows and between magnolia leaves, washing Nashville in a golden cast.

We moved through their space, from their cozy living room and their kitchen where they often spend evenings cooking together out to their front lawn, and they shared the incredibly sweet story of how they met and then how he proposed. They talked about why they were most looking forward to getting married, what they still had left to plan, and what their favorite part of the wedding planning process had been so far.

There’s something particularly special about documenting love in the space where it lives every day.

Between competitive rounds of their favorite games and quiet moments just being together, we captured exactly what makes their relationship unique. No matter the setting, the place, or time of day, this is why photographing people is my favorite thing to do — it’s a privilege to celebrate couples simply in their element, surrounded by the details of the life they’re building together.

And yes, their cat made an appearance in nearly every setup. I wouldn’t have had it any other way.

Let’s connect. Find me on Instagram or contact me here.

+ view the comments

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Using a blend of digital and film photography, Stokes creates an editorial-meets-documentary style to preserve modern love stories.

The result is a timelessness for couples who seek genuine moments, singular experiences, and imagery that captures how a moment felt.

A Nashville engagement session with Millie and Will.

 01

This engagement session with Millie and Will takes me back to those gorgeous Nashville sunlit evenings when it felt like the days had no end.

Laurel and Leaf's floral appliqué starts wedding floral trends for 2025.

02

Here’s what’s coming for 2025 wedding floral trends — they’re moving beyond the vase entirely. Floral appliqués, pioneered by Laurel and Leaf, creating wearable art made of blooms.

Lush florals, rich textures, and ornate family-style reception tables are coming in 2025.

03

You’re reading it here first: Long wedding reception tables filled with sculptural florals and mixed textures will be on trend in 2025.