Funny things always seem to sneak their way into my engagement sessions. To be honest, funny + wild things happen about 110% of the time (not even exaggerating!) But that’s what makes this career all the more fun. Robert + Courtney are a quirky, cute couple that chose me to photograph not only their wedding day (HAPPY DANCE CENTRAL) but their engagement too. It’s humbling to think about these two moments being some of the biggest in their lives that they’ll want to look back on. These two wanted a southwest desert look & this location is one of my favorites. Upon pulling up Courtney asked “we were wondering, how do you find these places?” To be honest, I just drive around & drop pins where I think would be a beautiful place to shoot. But sometimes a place is shown to me too. This is one of the latter. One of our good friends when we first moved to good ol' EPTX took us out to this middle of the desert spot & I FELL in love. Probably similarly to the way that Robert + Courtney feel about each other!

It was so quiet out in the desert we chatted about how we needed music. So when I was going for laughs, I asked Courtney to sing Cardi B's "I Like It" to Robert after she mentioned that it would be a part of their wedding party introduction music... but there was a twist. In a chipmunk voice. Y'all are pretty up to date on the goofy things I ask my couples to do to get those authentic moments cause i'm not a big believer in fake laughter. Go big or go home, right? But yeah, they nailed it.

The reason for mentioning crazy things happen during session - towards the end of our time together this giant bug decided that my head was a good landing pad & we all agreed that it was like the size of a bird which ensued more laughter because it would not stop flying around me. So you could say their engagement session will be full of memories for all of us. But I think the biggest one will be how gorgeous the southwest brought the golden light last night. These two are already magic all on their own but that light made everything that much more perfect! They are a match made in heaven but you can see for yourself!

Sparrow & Gold Photography is run by Jessica Rivera & focuses largely on the in-between moments + capturing beautiful, authentic memories. She is a sucker for the unique love stories + traveling to the ends of the earth to document them while living in the southwest corner of Texas in El Paso.