When Courtney contacted me about photographing her wedding, there was an unexpected note in the comments section. It was along the lines of, “I got your name from my Aunt, who happens to be your mom’s uncle’s daughter. We just moved to San Antonio!”.

What?! What a small world. My family is mostly in the Arizona/California area, so to have a distant family member in the same city in Texas was so crazy!

I met up with Courtney and Joe at a Starbucks to get to know them and to hear about their wedding plans. Not too long ago, they were living in California, but a road trip with some friends made these Dallas Cowboys fans fall in love with the Lone Star State even more. As if the Cowboys didn’t have a special place in their heart already, Joe proposed to Courtney on the Star at the center of Cowboy’s stadium. High five, Joe! Talk about one hell of a proposal!

Texas was obviously in the cards for these two California natives – earlier this year, Joe received a job opportunity in San Antonio, and now they are here!

Our coffee date was initially to get to know Courtney and Joe and to talk about their wedding plans, but eventually engagement photos came into the conversation. Sure, they wanted some photos to celebrate this exciting time in their life, but what they wanted most were some photos with their three pups. We had to give them some playtime at first, but after they had a chance to run around the beautiful Cibolo Nature Center, these playful pups were quite the models!