This engagement session was one for the books. Fiona and Max and their love story is one of my favorites. We wandered around Downtown Lancaster for their session and it was beyond amazing. When I asked Fiona where she was thinking for their session location, Lancaster was the obvious choice! She said it has played a huge role in their relationship and their friends jokingly call us their Lancaster tour guides. Spending time exploring downtown is how they got to know each other and it’s where they’ve made most of their important relationship decisions. Max even proposed at the Lancaster Art Museum! It’s SO special to now be able to capture their engagement session here!!

I cannot wait for their wedding this fall at the Drumore Estate!

Read about their love story here

When did you start dating/ How long have you been together?

• We’ve been together almost 5 years, but have known each other for more than 10! Depending on who you ask, our romantic relationship either started the day we first danced at my brother’s wedding or a few weeks later on our first date.

Tell me about the proposal!

• It was six months into early Covid times and some of our favorite restaurants were just beginning to reopen their dining rooms. We’d been saying for weeks that we should do a date night in downtown Lancaster so we made an early reservation at Zoetropolis and put on clothes that weren’t sweatpants for the first time in weeks. As we were driving downtown, Max started reminiscing about some of our favorite memories in the city – our First Friday date nights, the Airbnb stay-cation where we decided to move in together… He parked further from the restaurant than I was expecting and we began walking through the park behind the Lancaster Museum of Art, a place that’s very sentimental to me. Max got a lot more emotional (and sweaty) as we reached the top of these old stone steps – then I’m pretty sure we both blacked out for a moment when he got down and proposed, since neither of us remember exactly what we said haha. At some point I guess I said yes! He’d been somehow keeping all of his planning secret for months – I apparently kept unintentionally getting in the way – and had even hired our good friend to put on a disguise and photograph the whole thing. Afterwards, I found out his mother had offered him her mother’s ring less than a year after we’d started dating and he’d been waiting ever since for the right moment. 

What is your favorite thing to do on a date night?

• Grabbing a weighted blanket, a whole bunch of snacks, and a good movie (or a few).

What was your first date like?!

• We were both so nervous! Going on a date after so many years as friends in such a close friend group. I think it caught us both by surprise how not awkward that transition ended up being. We went to dinner at a restaurant sitting on the Susquehanna (sadly now closed), found seats on the back deck overlooking the water, and ended up talking for hours until the bar closed and we had to leave. You know on a first date how it’s all the “let’s get to know each other” conversations? Well, ours was filled with sharing as many embarrassing childhood stories with each other before our families could. It sounds so cheesy to say things just felt “right” that night, but they did! And we’ve never looked back.  

Favorite activities to do together?

• Poking around Lancaster city and picking up coffee at one of our favorite spots – shoutout to Mean Cup and Square One. Walking anywhere, really, together whether it’s on a hike or just around our neighborhood. Visiting all of Max’s family’s dogs and leaving with a new coat of fur (4 golden retrievers and one very cute basset hound). Cooking any type of breakfast meal together. We’re absolutely believers that breakfast food has no set time of day. We also love exploring new types of card games, board games, online games with our friends and family.

What do you do for work?

• I (Fiona) am the Assistant Director of Candidate Experience & Enrollment Systems for Pennsylvania College of Art & Design in downtown Lancaster. That’s pretty much a long-winded way of saying I manage all the behind-the-scenes things to make it easy to apply to the College. Max is an Associate Business Intelligence Analyst for Lancaster General Hospital, sifting through data to help support leadership projects and decision-making. We’re both data nerds even though we studied very different things in college (me – art history, him – kinesiology).

What is your vision for your session and photos!? The style/feel you’re hoping for.

• We are all about classic, cozy, and timeless – that’s what brought us to Lauren. Her bright, airy lighting and mastery of soft, fuzzy black & whites that could be from today or decades ago are exactly our style. More than anything, I wanted us to feel like ourselves when we looked back on our pictures and Lauren’s natural shooting style made us feel so comfortable. I can’t describe how exactly or what exactly about them, but it truly feels like Lauren captured the warmth and silliness of our relationship in her images. 

Is there any significance/story to your session location?

• Lancaster City has played a huge role in our relationship. Our friends jokingly call us their Lancaster tour guides since we’ve spent so much time walking around the local shops and restaurants that we pretty much have a regular tour route when people come visit. Spending time exploring downtown is how we’ve gotten to know each other and it’s where we’ve made most of our important relationship decisions. 

Outfit details please!

Fiona

• Dress – Fame & Partners

• Sweater – Target

• Jeans – LOFT

• Boots – Nisolo

Max

• Sweater – H&M

• Shacket – Target

• Navy Shirt – True Classic 

• Jeans – Old Navy

Tell me more!

• We always joke that our relationship could be a cliché romcom. Max has been one of my older brother’s best friends since early high school. Growing up their whole group of boys felt like big brothers to me, but my mom always (not so subtly) hinted that she thought Max and I should date – he was completely oblivious, of course, and I never thought about it too seriously. This went on for years until my now sister-in-law entered the picture and joined my mom’s efforts. One of the first things they decided after my brother proposed was that Max and I were going to be paired together in the bridal party. She was hoping this would give us an excuse to get to know each other outside of their friend group and maybe spark something more. And she was right. We stayed in touch as the wedding got closer, but Max always put his close friendship with my brother first – he didn’t want to accidentally ruin that by pursuing me and having things end badly. It wasn’t until my brother drunkenly sat Max down during his bachelor party and said he was fully supportive if Max was interested in taking a chance on a relationship with his little sister that things began to change. Their wedding day out in Arkansas swings around and most of my family and our friends are talking (again, not so subtly) about “will they or won’t they” – no pressure right? We found some moments leading up to the ceremony to talk and keep getting to know the new, adult versions of each other. By the time of the ceremony, I had decided that if Max didn’t ask me out by the end of the weekend – I was going to ask him. The ceremony was beautiful and the reception was in full swing when Max and I took a drink break at the same time and he said, let’s take the next slow song together. As if in a movie, the DJ immediately transitioned to “All of Me” so Max and I laughed and walked towards the dance floor…where everyone else had seemingly decided that was a good time to take a break too. It was completely empty and I told Max we could wait for the next one if he wanted, but his mind was set and he said, nope we’re doing this. So we walked out, completely alone, and started dancing together. Of course, my brother and his friends made a big deal out of it and joined us on the dance floor so that by the end of the song we were all a laughing mess (Max only almost dropped me in a dip once – he disagrees). We spent the whole after party sitting next to each other on a couch talking and I kept waiting for him to make some sort of mention of asking me out after the wedding. And yet, nothing. By the time I was leaving with the girls back to our Airbnb, I’m thinking okay, maybe he just kept getting interrupted – we’ll be seeing each other tomorrow to clean up the venue, maybe he’ll do something then. Tomorrow rolls around and we spend all morning cleaning out the decorations from the night before until the boys have to leave and catch their flight home. I’m still waiting when Max and I hug goodbye and I tell him to come visit me at school in Philly soon. He leaves, and I think that’s that (as do my parents and brother and sister-in-law who are all disappointed their plotting failed). A few hours later, I’m trying to figure out what I want to do about the situation when I get a text from Max asking me if I’d like to go out for dinner when we both get back to PA. When I responded “yes”, the boys apparently had a little celebration as they walked through the airport. A week and a half later, he picked me up in Lancaster and the rest of our story began. One of my favorite pictures of us will always be one my dad took at the beginning of that weekend, without either of us knowing. We’re sitting with our heads together playing with one of my sister-in-law’s dogs before going for a hike with the rest of the bridal party. When I asked him why he took it, he said he just had a feeling that we’d end up together sooner or later.