This Kirk Park Beach couple’s session was a new one for me! This beautiful beach is along Lake Michigan in West Olive, Michigan. And it’s absolutely GORGEOUS! But I had never been to a dog beach before, so honestly I wasn’t sure what to expect!

I actually just met Brianna fairly recently. Back in April, I decided to host a session giveaway. My husband and I had moved from Metro Detroit to Grand Rapids just under 2 years ago, and I just knew I needed to establish myself in Grand Rapids somehow. What better way to do that AND meet new amazing people at the same time??? And if you didn’t guess it yet, Brianna was the winner!

When she told me that she wanted to include two of their dogs, I just KNEW it was going to be so much fun! Axel is just the cutest, sweetest, and most mellow heeler I’ve ever met, and Betty, the retriever, is just so feisty and energetic. It was seriously so great! And having never been to Kirk Park Beach before, I wasn’t sure what to expect. I knew there would be other dogs, but that was it. And every once in awhile, I’d be looking through the viewfinder to realize that one of the dogs that was in the photo…wasn’t supposed to be! It was so stinkin great though.

So between other dogs joining in on the photos, and Betty running into the water only to roll around in the sand and then shake off as close to Sam and Brianna as she could, it was an amazing night.

Some background on these two lovely people! Sam and Brianna have actually been married for 4 years, but they’ve been together for alot longer than that! And their engagement story is just so stinkin sweet!

“Sam in I met in high school Spanish class almost 10 years ago!

We were on a vacation with his family in Mexico. Before, Sam and I were ring shopping and decided to just design our own. He told me that the ring wouldn’t be done for another month or so. But in reality it, got done the week before our trip, I had no idea. It was the last night of the trip (so sweet he knew I would want to celebrate with my family too so made sure it was at the end of the trip.) He was so nervous all day. 

He had a surprise dinner on the beach planned for us at 6:30. The whole week we had perfect weather except for the last day at 6:30 lol it started sprinkling as we were getting ready for dinner so they moved the dinner under the giant gazebo. Once we got to our dinner it started pouring and blowing causing the lights to short out – poor guy, nothing went as planned. At the end of our dinner sam asked me to stand up and he got down on one knee and asked me to marry him.

Despite things not going as planned, it was perfect. It was full of laughter smiles and pure happiness.”

How stinkin sweet is that?!?!

“Life sense we have been married is like the proposal night. Lots of things have not gone as planned or have challenged us individually and as a couple. But throughout those times we have found so much joy, smiled and laugh constantly, and have grown and learned so much.

Being married to your best friend is the most beautiful thing. It’s amazing how after 10 years how much we are still learning about each other!”

I seriously love being able to meet new people and hear their stories. It’s literally one of my favorite things about this job!

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