Monika and Francisco’s engagement session at North Avenue Beach was perfect evidence that cloudy forecasts can end in the most beautiful nights and sunsets at North Ave! I absolutely love when there are some clouds behind the skyline as the sun sets, because the clouds always turn the prettiest shades of pink and purple. Let’s be real though: North Avenue Beach engagement photos look amazing no matter the cloud cover, time of year, or weather! I was actually mentioned on Redfin talking about my love for the lakefront this month!! Check out the article we were featured in: 12 Fun Facts About Chicago.

This session was such a fun one, beautiful sunset and weather aside. The story of how Monika first “reached out” to me is one of my favorite things so I have to share it here: I posted something on my Instagram story about how I wanted to manifest shooting a wedding in Italy, and she responded to it saying “we can fly her to Spain lol” (meaning to send the story to Fran, not reply to it/message me hahaha). This was before they were even engaged, but after that message, we messaged back and forth about how they met, how she started following me (s/o to my past bride Frankie!), and how I have the best job ever (facts). So when her name popped up in my email inbox over half a year later, I gasped out loud because I knew that meant they had gotten engaged! 

If you know me, you know one of my favorite parts of being a wedding and engagement photographer is hearing how couples met—it’s the rom-com lover in me. Well Monika and Fran met at a concert in Chicago which is cute in and of itself, but hearing about how they crossed paths for years across the U.S. and Spain (where Fran is from and Monika lived for over two years) was even cooler! Monika literally stayed at his apartment—when he wasn’t there—with their mutual friend way before they ended up meeting at the concert!!! So crazy.

We started their session down on the beach with their cute blanket, a bottle of Cava, and a bouquet of flowers. Then we popped the Cava down on the sand before bopping on up to the skyline view where we did a few more in their casual outfit before they changed into their “fancier” look of Monika’s stunning silk white mini dress and Fran’s handsome suit. Some of my very favorites (as always) were the ones with the skyline as the Chicago city lights started to come on. 

Lastly, we wrapped up their session by heading back down to the beach close to the water to do some fun ones with direct flash. I edited these ones in a way that’s a little different than my usual editing style because I wanted them to have a filmy/disposable camera kind of look. I absolutely love how they turned out! Scroll on down to see these and all my other favorites from their session.