When I first started emailing with Dani, I knew that she and Jordan were my type of people. Jordan proposed to Dani in Montserrat, Barcelona on top of a mountain by the “Stairway To Heaven” statue. They expressed how much they love to travel together and couldn’t wait to spend the rest of their lives doing so. As we talked about their wedding and engagements, Dani said something along the lines of “We’ve always wanted to go to Portland, Oregon so we were thinking of going for our engagements. What do you think?”

I THINK HELL FRICKIN’ YA!

For the next few months, we planned the trip, where we wanted to go, and what we wanted to do, all without ever meeting in person. I flew out to Portland and met them for the first time in their hotel room where we planned outfits and listened to Jordan scream at the TV during the BYU vs. Utah game. I then knew that they were FOR SURE my kind of people because as we planned out the next two days, we focused a whole lot on where we wanted to eat while in Portland HAHA. 

DAY ONE

We woke up early and headed into the city to grab breakfast at Mothers. I HIGHLY RECOMMEND! Their biscuits and gravy will change your life. Our first shoot stop was at Yaquina Head Lighthouse. From there, we drove the coast, stopping wherever we felt like and frolicking on cliffs overlooking the sea. It was forecasted to be rainy and cloudy but we lucked out and caught warm sun and a deep blue ocean. Dani kept saying how shy she was and nervous to be in front of the camera, but the moment she started connecting with Jordan, it was easy to see that was her person. They snuggled and ran and joked and laughed so easily together, it was like I wasn’t even there!

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DAY TWO

The only regret that we had as we finished out day one was that we had passed a GIANT flower field in the morning as we headed to the lighthouse, but didn’t stop because we were so eager to get to the coast (and worried it would be raining). As we drove back to Portland at the end of day one, we searched for that field, but GPS took us a different way and we were SO bummed! Our goal going into day two was to find a cool flower field and this time, we would stop for sure. 

Sure enough, as we headed out to Cannon Beach the morning of day two, we came across a bright yellow flower field at least 3 times bigger than the one we skipped the day before!! We all freaked out and immediately pulled over of course. Those shots became some of my favorite of the whole trip because well, just take a look.

Cannon Beach was perfectly cloudy and blustery, and crowded, but not as crowded as we thought it would be (thankfully!). We ran on the beach, almost got all of our stuff, including my camera bag, taken out by a rogue wave, and played with other people’s doggos. 

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These adventure sessions are my new favorite, especially with likeminded people who also love dogs, finding new restaurants, and traveling to random places with new friends. 

Maddy is based in SLC, Utah, but enjoys traveling for shoots.

To book your own Adventure Session, you can contact her