Cuyahoga Valley National Park Engagement Session | Abby + Tyler
In 2017, I photographed Melissa and Tyler’s wedding. One of Melissa’s bridesmaids was Paige, who asked me to photograph her elopement to Jacob in 2018. Paige’s sister Devin got married to J.T. in 2019 and guess what….I was there! Well one of Devin’s bridesmaids in her wedding was Abby, and I am THRILLED to get to photograph her wedding to Tyler next year! What an awesome chain of events that introduced me to so many incredible couples!
Abby and Tyler live in Kentucky and are planning a PA wedding celebration next July. They made a trip to Ohio a couple weeks ago and we took advantage of all being in the same state to hang out for their engagement session! We met up at one of Northeast Ohio’s best hidden gems – Cuyahoga Valley National Park. From hiking trails to waterfalls, CVNP has it all. For as close as the national park is to the Youngstown area, I can hardly believe I haven’t explored it more. We decided to narrow down our evening to just a couple spots, and we originally landed on Brandywine Falls to start. Well once we got there and walked the boardwalk that gives you a view of the stunning falls, we realized that we didn’t have easy access to actually get to ground level with the falls behind us. Luckily Abby and Tyler are incredibly easy-going, and we all decided to pivot to Plan B! I knew there was a second waterfall in the park, and photos we googled showed that it looked a bit more accessible. It took some trial and error and asking some locals for directions, but we finally found Blue Hen Falls! This spot was absolutely perfect – we made our way right down to the falls and had the whole place to ourselves. The summer sunshine filtered in through the trees surrounding the rocks, and gave us such an ethereal vibe.
After the falls, we made our way to Everett Covered bridge, which had some beautiful open fields of flowers nearby. We arrived right at the golden hour, and literally got to frolic through the fields! Everett Covered bridge is so idyllic, and was a great grand finale to our Cuyahoga Valley National Park engagement session. Abby and Tyler, I am so glad we finally got to meet and spend this time together! I cannot wait to celebrate your wedding next summer! And I can’t end this post without giving a shoutout to Tyler’s mama Sharon who was the real hero of this evening – she drove us around the park and dropped us off at the side of the road where we were able to hike to the falls, and I don’t think we would have found it without her!
