Sturgeon Bay Engagement Session | Door County Photographer

Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin

Before we get to this stunning autumn Sturgeon Bay Engagement Session, here’s a little look into who Andrea & Phillip are and how their story started.

Two and a half years ago Andrea & Phillip had those first date nerves and were filled with excitement as they walked around a local park chatting normal first date topics, stealing glances at each other, and walking side by side. They sat on the tailgate of Phillips truck bed with butterflies in their stomachs. Speaking of trucks these two have an ongoing feud of who has the better truck. Phil likes and drives a Chevy and Andrea prefers Ford.

Both Andrea & Phillip had been weary of online dating but after some encouragement from their friends, they both reluctantly gave in and starting looking for their forever mate over the internet. (This part always resonates so deep with Troy & I, because it’s how we meet too! We always love having this common with a couple!) Lucky for Andrea and Phillip too for that matter, he was just inside her dating radius by a measly 2 miles, whoosh!

That was a close one! After their first date at the park, a hug, and soon after arriving home them scheduled their second date. This is looking favorable, wouldn’t you say?

Andrea had this to say and it’s so sweet so make sure you read up!

“I will never forget our fifth date, when we met each other’s parents and I hand milked a cow!”

“I will never forget our fifth date, when we met each other’s parents and Phillip took me to his family dairy farm for the first time. He showed me all around the farm and let me fulfill my dream of hand milking a cow! “Still convinced she just kept going on dates with me to get closer to the cows lol,” says Phillip. Later that day we were walking around some of their land and I remember looking at him and saying “Phillip, I’m gonna marry you someday!” And he just looked back and gave me a huge grin! Fast forward 2.5 years and here we are!!”

I’d say her instincts were pretty dead on wouldn’t you? And guess where their getting married?? His family farm! I know, I’m squealing too!!

I also love that Andrea said when she was little she told her Mom that she was going to marry a farmer someday and now it’s happening! This girls premonitions are on point. Think she’ll read my future?

Things they love doing together:

– Everything that involves summer weather

– Appetizers (Phil means wings!) These two love appetizers for a meal and I for one am 1000% behind this!!

– Kayaking

– Hiking (It’s their goal to visit every State Park in Wisconsin) I’m glad we got to do one of these together!

– Camping

– Deer Hunting

– Visiting Wisconsin Wineries and Breweries (Can you feel the Wisconsin Pride here??)

– Making projects for our home

– Traveling

– Green Bay Packers & tailgating

– Country Concerts and our love for Jason Aldean and Taylor Swift

Ideal date night:

Having a couple drinks with a view – specifically a rooftop bar – with friends, appetizers, and some good music!

And after their Door County Engagement Session, they went and had their favorite, chicken wings at Legend Larry’s.

Drum roll for my favorite part!!

How they describe each other:

Andrea describes Phillip as generous, loving, hard-working, romantic, and as her best friend

Phillip describes Andrea as beautiful, heartfelt, honest, sassy, and amazing

And finally why you are here.

Their Door County Engagement Session:

For Andrea & Phillip’s Door County Engagement Session, we met up at the Red Pine Trail to start their session with a series of romantic strolling through the woods photos that seemed fitting for these nature lovers. It didn’t take long at all for these two to feel comfortable in front of the camera and show off their love for one another. They giggled a lot, we chatted about chicken wings (these are Phil’s favorite), and avoided small garter snakes, sounds romantic now doesn’t it? None of us seemed to notice though because we were all having too much fun!

Soon enough we headed to our next location (our evening together was filled with multiple gorgeous locations, all within a 13-mile radius and multiple spots only 1 minute apart), a secluded section of the Lake Michigan shoreline where the foliage was turning soft muted autumn tones and lined the sandy beach where we found a perfect place drift log to snuggle on before we headed off to the next strip of beach just down the road.

They allowed any walls they had left up and tore them all down, exposing their love.

Andrea & Phillip walked the shoreline on the beach and Phillip tried to avoid getting wet with the rising tide, but not to success. These two had fun running, surprising each other, spinning around, and sharing some intimate moments. This was my favorite spot because I think they allowed any walls they had left up and tore them all down, exposing their love and becoming comfortable with Troy & I documenting their relationship close up.

With a wardrobe change, off we headed on that whole one-minute drive to the canal overlook where they had a small picnic on the side of the trail in the soft grasses. A small stroll while enjoying wine and French bread and headed walked down to the sand dunes just below and grabbed a few shots of them with their custom sign (cute right? Check out the link below to Wildflower Design by Alex. She’s made so many cute things for Andrea during their engagement. A shirt by Alex was actually how Phillip proposed, it was squeal-worthy.) and then settled down, cuddled up in their blanket, and we surprised them with a caramel apple to share.

What’s cuter than figuring out how to eat and share a sticky delicious caramel-dipped apple in the fall, snuggled up, on the sand dunes overlooking the Sturgeon Bay Canal surrounded by fall colors, nothing! That’s what!!

If we hadn’t won over Phillip by now, especially after talking about chicken wings, I think this is where it happened for sure. He was all about that apple, it was so funny to see how they interacted. Such cute personalities complement each other completely! Constant teasing and kissing, it’s adorable!

Phillip had envisioned and specifically asked for this location and we had to make it epic for him!

Guys! Next up was our last stop! It was “the one,” Phillip had envisioned and specifically asked for and we had to make it epic for him. Because when the groom gets this involved, you make it happen!! So we kept this location for sunset, which everyone knows is filled with light that is buttery goodness, and during fall, the colors are absolutely bursting.

Since the meadow is where Phillip wanted to capture their love, we led them only a little bit by sharing how to engage and walk and watched them do it all. I think they had fun here for sure, even though looking through the photos now, it looks like they had lots of fun from the time we arrived at our first location at the Red Pine Trail. And this is where Andrea and Phillip, in the most literal sense, ran off into the sunset!