This engagement has been featured on Pennsylvania Weddings

We were so excited to be able to travel to the gorgeous Hartwood Acres Mansion in Pittsburgh for Chelsey and Dave’s engagement session! From the moment we met this beautiful couple we knew that they were going to bring a lot of creativity and personality in to their shoot! Their session started out with a little bit of cloudiness, but the sunshine came out and made for some gorgeous golden hour imagery. These two were constantly teasing each other and laughing together! We cannot wait to celebrate with these two next May at Springfield Country Club!

Their Love Story

It all started when Chelsey and Dave decided to skip gym class during their sophmore year in college. They both agreed that it was lame and decided they’d rather skip. However, this wasn’t the exact moment where their love story began. In fact Chelsey wanted to ask Dave to their formal that year, but instead she decided to ask his best friend! The next year Chelsey had asked a mutual friend to find her a date for the formal that year. So naturally he decided to set Chelsey up with Dave and the two could not stop talking that night at Dave’s fraternity house and later exchanged numbers. Both remember this as the game changer for their relationship!

Dave is still unsure of why Chelsey said yes, but their first date took place in a basement…well sort of. Dave had asked Chelsey to go to one of his favorite coffee shops Called “Coffee Underground” and of course Chelsey said yes! Later Dave discovered that Chelsey actually dislikes coffee, but she was so taken with Dave that she couldn’t say no! However, Chelsey says she was so nervous that her soon to be matron of honor had to literally shove her out the door! They talked for over three hours and later that night Chelsey wrote in her journal that Dave was “too nice for her” but that didn’t stop them from going on their next date. Chelsey still teases Dave that he never “officially” asked her to be his girlfriend, but the two became exclusive in March of 2016 and the rest is history!

On August 24th 2019 Dave wanted to propose to Chelsey in her hometown at Rose Tree Park. Although it wasn’t as secretive as Dave would have hoped! Chelsey had just ran around with her families dog and Dave had to practically force her to change! This was clearly suspicious, but Dave wanted it to be perfect because he had a friend coming to photograph the proposal! When Dave could not find the spot he was looking for to propose he ended up unintentionally proposing next to a trash can! This didn’t matter to Chelsey and of course she said yes! Later she describes this moment as “a beautiful mess”.

Chelsey and Dave are obsessed with breakfast food, so much so that they tried to convince their family to let them have breakfast food at the rehearsal! It seemed incredibly fitting to begin the session at their favorite diner, Ritters Diner in Pittsburgh. The owner was so kind to let us have the entire place to ourselves to capture some amazing images in a place that is so special to the both of them.

Afterwards we were able to capture some dreamlike images at the romantic castle like venue known as Hartwood Acres Mansion. The session truly felt like a fairytale and Chelsey and Dave’s adorable rescue pup Milo was able to join us as well! Of course he couldn’t let them dress up all by themselves so he wore an adorable blue bow tie that complimented him and their outfits perfectly!

I really love quotes and find that they tell you a lot about a person and a couple. It came to no surprise that Chelsey’s favorite quote is by Elle Woods from Legally Blonde.

“It is with courage, conviction, and strong sense of self we take our next steps into the world. Remembering that first impressions are not always correct, you must always have faith in people, and most importantly you must always have faith in yourself.” -Legally Blonde

Ever since Chelsey was in eighth grade she has dreamt of becoming a brunette Elle Woods. Right before the engagement session she actually found out she got accepted to her first job as an active lawyer!

We absolutely fell in love with the sentiment of Dave’s cherished quote. The idea of approaching life’s truth’s with creativity is something very dear to our hearts and Dave’s as well.

“There is something about approaching universal truths with the simplicity of the acoustic guitar. You can take it anywhere and it helps me reach listeners of all ages and walks of life.” -Jim Croce