A romantic winter engagement at the Chicago Botanic Garden

Anna and Francois-Marie met in college. Francois-Marie came from France to study in the US, while Anna was born here. Now, both live in the Chicago area. One of the most important thing to them is nature. Anna and Francois-Marie envisioned a very romantic winter engagement session in nature, which would reflect their love for nature and thus their personalities. The Chicago Botanic Garden is the best location for nature images near Chicago providing so many options to photograph.

Anna and Francois-Marie were hoping for a snowy day to photograph their engagement session. To time their winter engagement with a Chicago snowstorm we relied on daily weather reports and were lucky to have gotten the perfect snowstorm on a random January weekday. For this snowy day both were wearing a classic and timeless outfit – black winter coats standing out from the landscape covered in deep white snow.

Some of the many beautiful garden themes in the Chicago Botanic Garden are the Japanese Garden, the English Walled Garden and the Rose Terrace. The Rose Terrace has a magnificent tree area reminding one of Paris. And speaking of Paris what could be more appropriate to photograph in this environment for Francois-Marie? And though in Chicago we found a place reminding Anna and Francois-Marie of beautiful Europe. Though the trees had lost their leaves they still had their charm – standing in line building a unit. Anna and Francois-Marie walked together, chatting and laughing and enjoying being together in this Paris-like atmosphere. From ‘Paris’ we went on to ‘England’ to the beautiful English Walled Garden showcasing beautiful English architecture. Here a small Gazebo provided them shelter from the snowstorm for a brief moment. Once we left ‘England’ we aimed for ‘Japan’ – its stunning Japanese Garden with its majestic bridge and Willow trees.

During our walk together the snow was quietly falling to the ground, which felt like being in a vacuum – quiet and peaceful. The only thing I could hear in this vacuum was Anna and Francois-Marie’s love for each other, told fine art photographer Tamara Gruner, who captured this romantic love session in such dreamy images. How more romantic can it get?