Herrenhäuser Gärten & Gardens Engagement (in Germany)

On our third day in Germany the twins, Nick, Kate, Jannes, and I took a train from Düsseldorf, Germany to Hanover, Germany. It was about two hours. Then we hopped on a bus that let us out practically right at the entrance to an actual palace. It was early and it was chilly, but every one of us were so excited to explore Herrenhäuser Gärten.

Even though we arrived in early spring, as most things were just beginning to bloom it was obvious how beautiful the florals would be soon in full bloom. Without them, the gardens and palace were still grand - and we were able to really notice the beautiful architecture without the distraction of colorful florals stealing their attention. I loved this yellow pop of color at the end of the natural hedges - and felt like it really complimented Kate's dress.

A dress she most excitedly texted me a picture of the moment she bought it for this session, before we even landed on Herrenhausen Palace and Gardens as our location.

These two. How cute are they together? Jannes is an actual pro at the "walk together" pose. They practiced.

The sun only came out for a few minutes during our entire session but when it did it shone like a spotlight on the palace.

The palace had all of these really pretty gold accents and statues everywhere and it was a little surreal imagining what it must have been like to be one of the original palace owners' children or grandchildren and running around in a backyard like this. This blog post gives a pretty quick history lesson on the palace (which was burnt down during WWII and rebuilt in 2012).

I thought about that while the girls were running around with Nick during the session.

Can we appreciate that she forgot her fancy shoes and did her entire fancy engagement session at a palace in her New Balance tennis shoes? Such a champ.

If you wear tennis shoes to your engagement shoot (PS) and have a dress that twirls (like this one) just be prepared for me to ask you to spin around barefoot. Kate was such a good sport about it all and honestly, I love barefoot photos.

Look how cute her nose scrunch is.

Their wedding is going to have lots of greenery - so we made sure their engagement session did as well. Did I hold little tiny yellow wildflowers by my camera for a little extra magic? Yes. Yes I did.

Is it a, "I love you so much," snuggle or an, "I'm so cold," snuggle? You'll never know.

Toward the very end of the session, we passed this bridge and I knew we had to get at least one shot on it. Which was actually really hard to time because there were so many people out riding bikes on a path you can't quite see behind it in this photo. So they stood there for a few minutes until we found a window - it was worth it.

Possible my favorite spot during the session was this gazebo. On one side there was construction and scaffolding but I promised they wouldn't see it in photos. Did I lie? I have always wanted a gazebo (obviously not on this large of a scale) so any time the opportunity presents to take photos in one I am game. Some people think you want to be "in the middle" of the gazebo for portraits -b ut the trick (in my opinion) for really great portraits with a gazebo is to keep the couple in the light just under an arch.

There was so much detail on it. & inside of it.

Here Kate was really having a princess moment and also an um... "Silly," moment. I looked at Jannes during this dance of hers and said, "Just think. That's going to be your wife," and he laughed so hard.

& then he joined her for a few twirls.

It was sort of like watching them live out a moment in a fairy tale.

I wish, so badly, I could remember what we were talking about here. It's possible it was Kate's dance moves (ha). Their faces were cracking me up while editing and Kate was so happy I captured Janne's "I'm up to no good," face.

I read somewhere online it is the highest garden water fountain in Europe - and found more information about it here in this blog.

It was beautiful.

It was also a little loud and it was kind of funny having to yell over the sound of water in such a peaceful setting.

This fountain wasn't nearly as high but really gave off a, "Yep - we are definitely in Europe right now," look.

Can we take a moment to appreciate what a stunner Kate is here... when I was just testing light?

The tulips weren't blooming here yet but the daffodils were showing off for sure.

Side note - Jannes is super shy, so getting him to kiss Kate in public was actually harder than getting Kate to strip out of her zoo clothes and into a fancy dress in public.

Getting him to walk like a model, though? Easy Peasy.

I can't wait to see these two again (possibly this spring here at home) in October for their wedding. Go show them some love here on Instagram.