When I flew to South Dakota for Rona and Jose’s elopement, these two basically became instant friends. We got some bagels after I landed and basically drove around all afternoon all around SpearFish Canyon, chatting about how much we loved nature and travel.
These two first met in high school. They were just friends. But if you ask Jose, his version is that Rona secretly was in love with him then and was waiting for her turn to be his girlfriend. But really, she grew up not being allowed to date and the older she got, the more she realized that she wanted to just have just one boyfriend and that’s it.
Jose knew that, so he made sure to stay in the friend zone, “on purpose” and slowly waited for their friendship to evolve as a love story and let me tell you, these two are true love story and so sweet to each other. The whole session was a dream. From the location they picked to how free-spirited they were.
Even when it rained, and then hailed, they were still smiling. And the way Jose would always run back to the car to get the comforter in between shots, to make sure Rona wasn’t too cold, was adorable. And of course I had to take one shot of them wrapped in the comforter because it was so cute.