When we first began thinking about our engagement shoot pictures, it was a no-brainer that we wanted to wait until winter had ended and all the dead, leaf-less trees had bloomed into beautiful colors for springtime.

The more we thought about it, however, the more we wanted to get our e-session done and over with. Furthermore, since we were having our wedding in the summer, it seemed more fun to take advantage of a winter shoot that would be the exact opposite of our wedding photos.

And since we were taking pictures in Colorado in the winter, I absolutely insisted that the weather Gods bring me pretty white snow. Because what fun is a winter shoot if it’s just bare, dead trees?

We had to twist our photographers’ arms, but they finally agreed to travel several hours outside of Denver to do a shoot in the snowy mountains.

As the day of our e-shoot approached, I was getting more and more excited when I discovered that the forecast for the weekend late in February was snow. However, my excitement soon turned to panic when our weather here in Albuquerque dipped down into the 20s and I realized that snow also meant freezing temps (duh!) that I might not be able to tolerate in the pretty white lace dress I had picked out just for the shoot!

The day of the shoot, it was indeed snowing, but we both put on a brave face and endured the cold and we are so thrilled our photographers endured it as well!

You cannot tell from the sunny pictures, but we froze our tushes off in 15 degree weather. We started off in Vail with fresh snow falling, and somehow, only a few miles away in Minturn, where we continued the shoot, it was clear skies and bright sun!

Some of the locations where we shot at were really difficult to get to. Our photographers, without meeting us or knowing much about us, somehow thought it was a great idea to immediately start off our shoot in Vail making us climb up a steep snowy hill to a spot in some aspen trees and later also thought it was a great idea to climb down a snowy embankment to get to a spot on the river.

….and they were right!!! We thought it was a splendid idea, too, and so “us” to be climbing to impossible spots! You don’t get great views and photos without having to work for them or trample in thigh-deep snow!

I’m not much of a girly girl and you may not be able to get me to paint my nails or put on lipstick for an engagement shoot, but ask me to hike in snow or cross a river in a dress and I’m in! It certainly didn’t hurt that one of the photographers came prepared with his snowboard boots, ready to scout out the trail and stomp out the path to where we were going.

But wait! There was more adventure to be had during our engagement shoot than just climbing through snow and walking across an ice-cold river in a dress and boots!

Towards the end of our shoot our photographers had a cute idea for shot at a tire swing. Our photographers lead the way in their vehicle toward the secret spot for which they had been given directions to by a local. Mid-way there we had to abort this mission due to the snow.

In a nail-biting effort to turn back around in the snow our photographer’s vehicle got stuck. We hopped out of our vehicle to help them as best as we could — well, Bryce helped and I stayed looking pretty and powdered my nose. Without a hitch on our vehicle, there wasn’t much we could do to rescue them. We had almost given up hope when the macho boys rocked the vehicle good enough to unlodge it from the small snow ditch it was stuck in.

Not only did we not get photos of this fun little side adventure, but we never made it to the tire swing. We could see the tire swing from the road on our way to the next shooting location and we waved a bitter-sweet goodbye to the swing that we would never meet.

But there’s still more to this adventure! After finishing up our shoot with the Brintons, Bryce had the brilliant, unrelenting idea to try to still get to this tire swing on our own, but from the other end.

So we set out again trying to find the tire swing. Not knowing exactly where it was at, but getting the sense that we had passed the hidden group of trees the tire swing was hanging on, we again had the pleasure of turning our vehicle around in the snow. Only, this time we were not so lucky. Now WE were stuck and no one was around to help us!

After rocking our Volvo out of the snow for an exhausting, stressful (but can we admit we did have a LITTLE bit of fun?) half hour, we were finally freed and on our way, only to discover that we only had to travel a few feet from the opposite end we were coming from in order to get to the tire swing. We eventually made it to the tire swing after more deep snow hiking and froze our butts off one last time as the sun had finally set after a long adventurous day.

We hope you enjoy viewing our snowy engagement shoot by Brinton Studios as much as we enjoyed taking them!

Photo taken by us after the e-shoot.