Engagements Archives - Cordelia Haugen MN Wedding Photographer

Grand Marias Engagement Session. Ashley + Cody.

I’ve always wanted to shoot a Grand Marais engagement session. So, I was SO SO stoked when Ashley and Cody asked if I was willing to make the drive up to Grand Marais for their session. Luckily, my family was already planning a camping trip up in Grand Marais! Ashley and Cody agreed to be up there at the same time, so we put it on the calendar.

When I showed up to our Grand Marais engagement session, it was wet and rainy and dreary. So, we met up at their favorite coffee shop in town for some warm drinks before heading out to shoot. By the time we got through the line, the rain had cleared. So, we headed out for a walk around town, warm drinks in hand.

We walked around the bay, and ended up at World’s Best Donuts. Ashley told me how she used to take yearly family vacations up to Grand Marais. Her dad always stopped and brought them donuts at World’s Best. I had never tried them, so of course, we all got donuts. I let Ashley pick mine out, and it was fantastic. It definitely holds up to its name.

After that, we made a quick stop to change, and then we headed up to Artist’s Point. They showed me their favorites spots and where they always take a selfie each time they visit. Of course, we took a photo in the same spot.

Gosh, I had such a great time with these two! They were so open and fun to be around. Toward the end, they even took off their shoes and stood on the rocks getting pummeled by waves. Lake Superior always has VERY cold water. They laughed and grimaced every time a wave hit their toes, but they embraced it anyway! Now they have those memories and gorgeous photos to show for it!

Ashley and Cody, thank you for trusting me, for adventuring with me, and for having a Grand Marais engagement session! I will remember it always!

Locations
Grand Marais, MN
Coffee:: Java Moose
Donuts: World’s Best Donuts

Sunriver Resort Session. Kip + Corinne.

This Sunriver Resort session is a special one to me. My uncle Kip was the groom. He married the lovely Corinne last fall at Sunriver Resort in Sunriver, OR.

This wedding was a long time coming. It was postponed because of COVID…twice. They had a vision, and they stuck it out in order to get it. It was so beautiful when we all finally gathered at Sunriver Resort in Oregon to celebrate these two and the beginning of their marriage.

The weekend was so busy, that this session almost didn’t happen the way it did, but I’m SO SO SO glad that we were able to take an hour away from the craziness that is a destination wedding and grab these pre-wedding shots. The quiet of the river and some deep breaths really brought the best out of these two.

We met at the edge of the resort at the horse barn, and walked along the river. It was chilly, but so refreshing to be outside after traveling all day throughout airports and spending hours in the car.

I loved getting to see the way these two support and love each other. They really opened up and let me in, and that kind of trust always wields the best images.

Here are a few of my favorite shots from my session at Sunriver Resort with Kip and Corinne! Enjoy!

Locations
Sunriver Resort, Sunriver, OR

Kara + Logan. Gooseberry Engagement Session.

So, it’s already March of 2020 and I haven’t shared ANYTHING from my 2019 season. Being a mom of three crazy girls and holding down a photography business is no joke. Blogging has been the least of my priorities, and so, you’ve all missed out on a LOT of work that I have not yet shared. So today, I’m taking the time to share! Here’s a Gooseberry engagement session from the fall! Yay!

Kara is special to me because she taught my oldest two kids to read. That’s right. She’s a kindergarten teacher. My kids’ kindergarten teacher. She’s everything you want in a teacher for your kids and a client for your business. She’s bubbly and fun, and patient and understanding. She’s adorable and adventurous. So, getting to know her over the last couple years has been such a blessing. When I finally got to meet Logan, it just made sense. He is the quiet artist type. He’s more reserved, but not too serious. He’s got a great sense of humor and a passion for craft beer. Actually, Kara does too. She now works part time at the brewery where my husband brews. I love these two together, and I can’t wait for their wedding this summer!

Anyway, I’m so excited that I got to go do a Gooseberry engagement session with them! These guys got engaged up on the North Shore, so it just made sense to do their engagement session there too. You know I’m a huge fan of tall pines and waterfalls, so we took a road trip up to the shore in the fall. Anyway, I’ll stop chatting now and just show you pictures. Here is a glimpse into Kara and Logan’s Gooseberry engagement session!

Locations
One: Amnicon Falls State Park
Two:Gooseberry Falls State Park

gooseberry falls engagement session Cordelia Haugen Photographer

Gooseberry Falls Cordelia Haugen Photographer

St. Croix Falls Engagement. Petra + Drew.

I’m so excited to finally share this St. Croix Falls engagement session with you!

I met Petra and Drew at a wedding reception last June. We hit it off instantly! Petra asked me, as Drew so lovingly put it, “in a flood of excitement” a million questions about wedding venues and planning and photography. They were recently engaged, and I was happy to answer every last question. I was so thrilled when I got an email from Drew a few weeks later inviting me to shoot their wedding this June!

Every time I get to see them, conversation flows so naturally. They are genuinely interested in both telling their own stories and listening to mine. It’s wonderful. I’m thankful to have met them, and I can’t wait to celebrate their wedding coming up in a few short months.

In the meantime, here are some photos from their engagement session back in October. We met up in town for tea and pastries, where of course, we had a wonderful time chatting. Then we went into Interstate Park for their St. Croix Falls engagement session. It was the very first flurries of snow, and now that *hopefully* the snows have ended, I’m finally getting around to sharing these with you!

Location
Interstate State Park, St. Croix Falls, WI

Jillian + Andrew. Winter Engagement Session.

Let’s talk about Jillian and Andrew’s winter engagement session! I’ve known Jillian for awhile now. Her family is good friends with my husband’s family. So I met her shortly after I started dating Ben over 10 years ago. Jillian is great. She’s bubbly and funny and loves Jesus, and her whole family is known to break into song on occasion. I’m so so happy that she has found the man she’s going to spend forever with!

These guys went through a lot to find each other. They met on online after months of getting message upon message from weirdos and meeting up with a few duds. Finally, they met each other and it was about as close tp love at first sight as you can get.

I didn’t meet Andrew until the day of their engagement session. We met up for coffee first, so we could get to know each other a bit before heading out to shoot. I asked him what it was about her that drew him in, and he answered by saying that she is the most positive, energetic person that he’s ever met. He also mentioned they they laugh together and that she’s going to be a wonderful mother to his 5 year old daughter. Jillian said she loves Andrew’s commitment. To his business. His family. His daughter. and now to Her. She told me that Andrew is constantly putting others before himself and that was the most attractive quality about him.

After our coffee date, we headed out to a nearby park for their winter engagement session. The temp was 5 below zero. I think that’s the coldest session I’ve ever done. But we still managed to have a blast. We spent more time in my truck chatting than actually out taking photos, but what we did get was gorgeous!

I’m so happy for these guys. I’m pumped that I get to shoot their wedding this spring! So without further ado, here are the photos!

Location
Montisippi Regional Park

Cordelia Haugen Winter Engagement Session

Cordelia Haugen Winter Engagement Session Montisippi Park

2018. Year in Review.

2018 has been such a great year! I got to meet some really kind, generous, hilarious, and just plain fun couples. I got to photograph my first birth. I also started to play with food and beverage photography, which has been a learning experience. Of course, I also went on a few adventures with my family. So, this is a conglomeration of all of that. Thank you all for supporting my business this year. It means the world to me.

On a personal level, and not included in the photos, my year was full of big changes! We sold our perfectly lovely neighborhood home that we built 3 years ago and bought a 1969 fixer upper on a beautiful little piece of property. It’s been fun starting to renovate it and make it our own, but I do miss having a dishwasher. My oldest daughter started Kindergarten. She goes to a cool little charter school, so I’ve officially been promoted to that mom that drives back and forth to school to drop off or pick up kids in our new (to us) SUV. I promise I won’t get any bumper stickers or window clings. Anyway, that’s enough about me! So, without further ado, here are the photos….

Tori + Greg. Minnehaha Engagement Session.

Tori and Greg live in Arkansas, where its warm ALL year round. Yet, they came the North in the middle of winter for their Minnehaha engagement session. And they were total troopers. Tori told me they went out and bought winter jackets the DAY BEFORE. How great is that?!

Let me tell you a little bit more about this couple, because their story is what made me want to work with them so badly! Tori is from the midwest. Greg is a southern boy. They’re both serving our country in the Army. If you know my family, you know that the Army is near and dear to my heart. My uncle, Sgt. 1st Class John J Tobiason, was KIA in Iraq back in 2007, but that is a story for another time. Back to Tori and Greg. These two met at the Bataan Memorial Death March in New Mexico, which is an event honoring soldiers of WWII. Only a couple days after meeting, they both headed their separate ways, but stayed in touch and started dating long distance.

Eventually Tori moved to Arkansas to be closer to Greg. Fast forward to 2016: He found out he was going to be deployed to Africa, so he planned a little weekend away for the two of them and popped the question. She, of course, said yes!

Shortly after coming back from the 100+ degree heat of his deployment, they drove to the midwest for Christmas, and met up with me to adventure around the Falls in the snow. That’s super impressive. Man, I love adventurous couples!!

They are getting married later this month, and I cannot wait to be a part of it! I really wanted to share these photos with you all (or should I saw y’all?) before their wedding. So without further ado, here are some of my favorite frames from their wintry Minnehaha engagement session!

Location
Minnehaha Falls, Minneapolis, MN

minnehaha engagement cordelia haugen: photographer

Clara + Zach. In-Home Session.

This in-home session has been on my list of things to blog for awhile now. It took place in the fall of 2017, and I’m so pumped to finally be sharing it! Clara and Zach moved to Minneapolis pretty recently (like a year ago or so) and bought the cutest little house. Clara really wanted to use their home for their engagement session, and I LOVE in-home sessions, so I was pretty excited about that. It ended up raining that day too, so it was a good thing we spent much of it indoors.

I had so much fun with Clara and Zach during their in-home session last fall! They made me homemade pizza, and it was delicious. We laughed a lot and I had a great time getting to know them more. Here are a few things Clara and Zach love: Music Festivals. Cats. Tea (although Zach loves coffee as well). Reading Books, and generally being cozy home-bodies.

I might not be a cat person, but I’ll gladly spend any rainy day sitting at home with a good book and a cup of tea, so we hit it off pretty well. I cannot wait for their wedding later this year. It’s for sure going to be a good one! So without further ado, here are some of the photos from our gloomy day, happy hearts, in-home session.

Location: Minneapolis, MN

Chloe + Peter. Minnehaha Engagement Session

I’m so excited to share Chloe and Peter’s Minnehaha engagement photos! They’re such an awesome couple! First of all, Chloe + Peter are a pair of really intelligent, really adventurous, and really super fun people. Whew! That’s a lot of really’s!

They live in Iowa, where they’re both currently applying for residencies in their respective pediatric fields. Chloe in medical, and Peter in dental. Like I said, they’re smart people. They actually met in Chemistry class their freshman year of college. Chloe says that before they met, they were assigned to edit each other’s lab reports. She picked his apart. He made one single mark on hers. She said she “was appalled to find out how cute he was!” haha. What a way to meet your future husband!

When planning their engagement session, Chloe asked me if there was anywhere that I hadn’t shot yet that I thought would be a great location. She wanted somewhere outdoorsy that we could explore together. I’ve been really into waterfalls lately, so I immediately thought to suggest a Minnehaha engagement shoot. Chloe and Peter agreed that Minnehaha was the best place for their session, and jumped through quite a few hoops to attain the right permits.

Eventually, Chloe got the okay, so we met up at the falls for a super fun evening of adventuring. The park is always busy, so we had lots of onlookers and people coming up and saying “congratulations!” We even saw a couple people walking around and taking photos with their pet snakes. I HATE snakes, and maybe had a small heart attack, but I held it together, and just took a little break until the snakes were gone.

We followed some paths that were not the most clear, and I fell down more than once. I only had a few new bruises the next day. Luckily, Chloe and Peter did not take after my clumsy example. So Chloe’s white dress stayed perfectly clean.

Anyway, I hope you love their Minnehaha engagement session as much as I do! I can’t wait to shoot their wedding in Iowa next summer! It’s going to be an absolute blast!

Location
Minnehaha Falls Regional Park

Cordelia Haugen Photographer minnehaha engagement session

Jenna + Nick. Wabasha Engagement Session.

Jenna grew up in my hometown. When I was in high school, I remember seeing her and her twin sister (who were in middle school) at my soccer games. They always volunteered to be the ball girls. When Jenna contacted me about possibly shooting her wedding, I remembered exactly who she was, and she had NO IDEA who I was, or that I was from the same town. So crazy. What a small world!

Nick grew up in a nearby small town, but these two actually ended up meeting online! They are affectionate, fun, and love spending time outdoors together. The day before our session, they spent the day canoeing! Luckily, they didn’t show up too badly sunburned! I had a great time hanging out with Jenna and Nick during their session, and I cannot wait for their wedding this fall!

I am so grateful these two chose me to be a part of their love story. We had so much fun on this Wabasha Engagement Session, but we actually didn’t even stay in Wabasha! I met up with them at a public parking lot and shot around downtown Wabasha a bit. Then Nick took us to a small town across the river in Wisconsin called Alma. First, we visited their local marina and then went to a park overlooking the river valley.

Nick had visited Buena Vista park with his dad when he was younger, and it was the perfect place to end their session. It was so gorgeous up there! With views overlooking the Mississippi River valley and the greenest, lushest trees. I loved it so much! So enough chatting. Take a look at the pictures! Because let’s face it, that’s what you’re here to see.