Park of Roses Engagement Session in Columbus, Ohio

Joshua & Mark

This session was pure magic! Joshua and Mark are some of the sweetest people I’ve ever had the privilege of working with and witnessing their love for each other was such a joy. When they first reached out to me about photographing their Columbus wedding we instantly clicked and I was so excited for their big day! Sadly, COVID-19 has significantly impacted their plans of getting married due to the closure of their venue. They were absolutely devastated when they received the email explaining that they could no longer get married at Juniper and my heart broke for them. Up until that moment everything had seemed to be very serendipitous with their planning— things had fallen into place perfectly to make their dream wedding plans come true. They were stopped in their tracks without a lot of information to move forward with. 

I remember Joshua texting me asking if I thought we should even still do an engagement sessions if they were not sure if/when they would be getting married. I was very insistent that regardless of their wedding plans we HAD to do their engagement session because they were still engaged and will eventually get married even if they don’t know the details just yet! I’m so thankful we went through with the session because their love it worth celebrating and even if this season of their life isn’t exactly how they envisioned it to be, it is still beautiful and worthy of being documented.

We had an absolutely gorgeous summer evening at the Columbus Park of Roses with warm golden light and lots of colorful blooms! I adored their outfit choices— especially Joshua’s floral shirt that was the perfect statement piece. After exploring the park we then headed across the street to Flowers and Bread because Joshua and Mark love a good coffee shop! 

Although we don’t know what the future holds for Mark and Joshua just yet, I do know their wedding will be full of so much love whenever and however it finally happens! I asked Joshua if he would write down their love story to share and I just love what he had to say! I love his positive outlook on things knowing things will eventually work out for the best!! 

Love Story

“It is actually a funny story about how Mark and I met. I was living in Cleveland at the time finishing my graduate degree in school psychology, and Mark was living in the Kent area. I was in need of a change of scenery while working on my graduate portfolio, and decided to venture to a new coffee shop in Stow called Nervous Dog Coffee Bar. Mark happened to stop at the same coffee shop while visiting his brother in the area. We struck up a conversation and ended up talking for hours. Despite the fact that I had already landed a job in the Columbus area and would be moving in a month, we continued to talk and hang out, assuming that a friendship is all that would come of it. After I moved, Mark started making the drive down to Columbus nearly every weekend to visit. Mark was in the beginning stages of opening up a haunted house, and decided to take a trip to Salem, Massachusetts for inspiration (which I begrudgingly accompanied him on). While on the trip, we decided to make our relationship official. After a year of a long-distance relationship, Mark made the move to Columbus.

Despite the fact that I had made it clear several times that Mark needed to be the one to propose, I, being the less affectionate one, realized that it would mean a lot to Mark if I was the one to propose. Knowing that Halloween is Mark's favorite time of the year and that I could plan around his work schedule at the haunted house, I was able to secretly organize a proposal. With the assistance of the haunted house crew and my best friends, I was able to completely surprise Mark with the proposal - he was completely and utterly caught off guard!

We first discovered our venue, Juniper Rooftop, when we decided to have our first dinner as a newly engaged couple. We were immediately struck by the beauty of the place, and a surprise complimentary bottle of champagne from one of my coworkers made it even more enjoyable. Months later when the hunt for a venue began, it immediately came to mind. I contacted the event coordinator to schedule a tour and get more information. While waiting for the coordinator on the day we scheduled our tour, it just so happened that the song we plan to walk down the aisle to played over the sound system in the restaurant. Not only that, when we went to sign the contract to secure the venue, another song that is very important to us started to play! I don't know if we are believers in fate, but those signs were certainly hard to ignore. 

Exactly a year to the date we were scheduled to get married, we received an email that changed everything - our venue was permanently closing due to COVID-19 struggles. We were absolutely devastated. Once we had time to actually process the news after vehemently going through the process of getting our deposit back, we realized that we should indefinitely postpone the wedding with the uncertainty of the pandemic. We want to be able to have the big celebration with all of our family and friends, and we will wait until it is completely safe to do so without potentially risking the health and safety of those closest to us.

We decided to channel the excitement and passion we had for wedding planning into house hunting, and we closed on the perfect house for us in Dublin in August! I think the universe knows better than we do, and perhaps we had to go through all of that to find our perfect house at the perfect time - or maybe there's even something grander planned for us down the future. Whatever the reason may be, I trust that everything will work out the way it's supposed to!”