Burgettstown Farm Engagement Photos

Good Afternoon, everyone!  Happy Wednesday! <— I really need a new intro, huh? Or should I just keep it?  Feels very “Hananh”, right?  You new blog readers probably have no idea what’s going on…stay with me!  You loyal blog readers…thank you again!  From the bottom of my heart, the time you take to not only read my blogs but get to know my couples and love them just as much as I do gives me all the feelings!  You’re all the best!

SO!  Just like that…I have another couple for you to meet! Wheww! Here we go!  This is my busiest month so you can expect a lot of blogs…and November is actually JUST as crazy…so it’s just going to be Hannah Barlow Photography blog-ness madness for the rest of 2019!  ARE YOU READY?!  I want you all to meet Tyler and Mackenzie!  They’re the newest couple on my blog now!  Get ready!  It’s a sweet one! Enjoy!

So, now that you’ve seen this sweet couple (who I actually got to meet back at the Stiffler wedding last year which you all know as the epic “Beauty and the Beast Wedding”), I’ll give you the story as I always do!  Nathan Stiffler and Tyler are cousins and he was a member of the bridal party too.  So, you kind of know Tyler! Mackenzie popped into some of photos as a future family member (which wasn’t actually official yet though…AHHH!! I love when everything comes full circle) so she’s been on my editing screen, as well.  Tyler also went to a performing arts high school for photography so it was a huge compliment when they both agreed they wanted me to be the one to capture their wedding day!  SooooO, I’m rambling!  Back to the story!  These two have big dreams for some land close to Tyler’s parent’s home in Burgettstown, Pennsylvania.  It’s going to be the site of their future house and life so they wanted to make memories up there starting with their engagement photos!  So, these first pictures that I did are more about the location and the story so I went real wide and tried to include it all! Of course, it had rained…ALL DAY.  Seriously, why does this ALWAYS happen to me?!  But if the dreaded rain this year has taught me one, big thing, it is that it brings beautiful skies and amazing fog and we can basically do ANYTHING in any weather…as long as it’s not lighting (but don’t tempt me…I’ve already been considering the laws of electricity and what a rubber tire could do for us should the moment arise).

May I present to you…the future Maltonys and the site of their future home!

So, Tyler’s like me.  Us photographers feel like we get real weird in front of the camera.  It’s just foreign to us!! I reminded him how “assertive” I can be so we went right into it (all while I was happy he was the one in front and not me)!  Neither of them missed a beat though and I’m looking at this gallery realizing how “different’ some of these poses are from my norm and how much I LOVE them!  I think some new pose names are coming into the mix real soon now!  I know…I know…we all love the “shoulder sniff” and the “walking and snuggling” but I think this next one might be the “squeeze for a forehead kiss” kind of photo!  What do you think?  You are all good with the names…help me out!  Ironically, Meghan (Tyler’s cousin’s wife mentioned above) tends to come up with a lot of the names of my things so I bet she’ll have some goodies!  I’ll report back!  I mean she DID name my Aisle be Ready workshops AND has a mannequin  in my studio named after her!

I particularly love this one in black and white!  We gotta talk about this tractor too.  I may save that goodness for the end though JUST so you have to suffer through the suspense now…don’t you dare scroll!  It’s sooooOooo worth it, I promise!

So, these two started dating a little over two years ago in September of 2017 but had known about each other from clear back in high school.  They tell me that looking back now, they may not have seen the future coming but couldn’t picture each other with anyone else now!  I think that’s apparent in these photos!  They take a good picture, don’t they?!

I mean, the couple makes the photo but this location took the walking and snuggling to a WHOLE other level!

I forgot to mention we all got super cozy on the way up to the top of this hill.  Once I arrived at Tyler’s parents’ home (near the property), we piled in Tyler’s truck to take the trip to the top.  That jaunt allowed me to talk their ears off about a little bit of everything (are you surprised?) while Tyler made multiple stops to get through the fences…all while we were chased by ornery, young cattle!  OoOO bonding!  So, we were pretty comfortable by the time we arrived at our destination and already having a good time before we even got started with the first photo.  So, it’s no surprise that when I called their first attempt at a snuggle “pathetic” (no shame)…Tyler whipped Mackenzie right into a dip.  Well then!  He put me right in my place now…didn’t he?!  Squealing machine, I tell ya!  He sure showed me!  LOVE IT!

These two have so many amazing things to say about one another I’m not sure I could fit it in this blog.  The important parts that stood out to me is Tyler admitting sometimes he smiles so much about Mackenzie his face hurts and Mackenzie following that up stating being able to marry a man like this guy has been the biggest blessing in her life.  It’s no surprise they both said “when you know…you know”….and now I’m just sitting here trying to figure out how to even finish all this!! Seriously, I just typed and backspaced about four sentences now.  So yea…this paragraph ends here.  Let’s just all take a moment and feel all that love through these photos!

Do you feel it?!

I kind of feel like every year they’re going to need “dancing where it all started” photos!  THIS is the beginning of their lives together.  It’s probably a REALLY good thing Tyler has a good camera!  This could get expensive otherwise! HA!  I mean…I’m happy to be that girl though…CAN YOU JUST IMAGINE THE BLOGS?!  Anniversary pictures…fur baby photos…maternity photos if they so choose…maybe children dancing around…or maybe just more fur babies…GRAND-BABIES?!  (which at that point…pfffffttt I might have already talked myself into the ground…who knows).  AHHHH!! The sky is the limit here!

So, now that I’ve gotten myself completely off track…let’s do some math here.  These two got engaged November of 2018.  They officially started dating September of 2017 (but had their eyes on each other since high school).  I just found out that Tyler actually had that ring 6 months before he even popped the question.  SooOoOooO *cue the romantic music*, that means when they said “when you know…you know”…they were serious and I totally believe it!  Tyler gave Mackenzie her ring and asked her that all important question in Pittsburgh last year with all of their family watching from afar….during fireworks…at the top of Station Square.  STOPPPPP!

I can only imagine they sealed it with a kiss!  I also am told there is a video.  My couples like to tease me with this stuff but some don’t follow up! HINT! HINT!

And we’re NOT done yet!  I’ll tell ya a little about their wedding AND THEN…the tractor!  They’ve decided to have a very romantic and BLACK TIE (WOOOOOO!!!!!!!! I’m getting my fancy dress out for this one…ladies…let’s go shopping!) wedding next October.  It’s going to have hints of greens and reds and blues and golds and I can only IMAGINE what I’m going to be seeing next year.  It’s going to be at the Hilton Garden Inn in Southpointe and I remember talking to this sweet girl about allllllll the venues in that area when she was in the booking process.  I’m SO happy that’s the one she chose!! It’s going to be AMAZING!  There are going to be so many familiar faces and it’s going to be a Hannah Barlow Photography reunion for some of us (black tie…in case you didn’t catch that) with A LOT of people (I’m a people person too)…OooO my goodness me.  Someone calm me down now!  I have a whole year to take deep breaths…I’ll get there!  I’m thinking black dress, pearl necklace, waterproof eye makeup…and my super comfy shoes.  It’s going to be a long blog wedding…I know it!

Ok…so there’s only ONE and ONLY ONE way to end this baby…the note about that tractor…

That’s an International 300 Utility tractor that Tyler pulled out of an overgrown field at this location in Burgettstown, Pennsylvania right across from his parent’s home.  He found it in May of 2016 and the condition was not so good – trees growing out of it, rust to the point of (almost) no return…you name it.  It even had a bull attack it which resulted in wires being pulled out to the point it may not have been worth repair.  It was on Tyler’s neighbor’s property.  Tyler is close with him that man knew how much Tyler cherished the tractor.  So, he gave it to him to restore. (OooO my goodness me…it’s like a Hallmark story, I tell ya!)  Tyler’s goal was to restore it and use it to clear the property where his and his future wife’s future home would be built.  SO, he did just that. Through lots of hard work, the tractor is now fully operational. Over the past few weeks, he has actually been using it to clear some some of the brush at the exact spot where the home will sit one day. So, that’s why they decided to have the tractor in the pictures on top of the hill where they would eventually build they forever home.  I kind of just want to sit here and stare at these all day long now.  IS THIS REAL LIFE?!  SERIOUSLY?

SOMEONE CALL HALLMARK RIGHT NOW!  RIGHT NOW!

I can’t…I can’t even with this story!  So, that’s all folks!! Until October 2020!

TO BE CONTINUED…