Kari and Michael // Downtown Stillwater Winter Engagement Session

You never know what type of weather you get in Minnesota for outdoor engagement sessions. One week it can be 46 and two weeks later, the wind chill is -12. This was the case with Michael and Kari’s winter engagement session in downtown Stillwater. The cool thing about these two is that they rolled with Minnesota’s oh-so-cold punches and were epic troopers through the whole thing! It wasn’t until the walk back to the cars that we all agreed that the cool air coming off of Stillwater’s St. Croix River was a bit more than we could bear – at which point Michael said the thing that would warm him up was pizza! (Kari assured me later that he got his pizza.)

​​Michael and Kari met on Christian Mingle – Michael saw Kari first and messaged her. When they first started talking, he lived in New York and Kari lived here in Minnesota, so they met in person a few months after first meeting online. Both of them shared that they didn’t immediately start dating because they had set the priority that they would not date a person if they couldn’t see themselves marrying that person. So naturally, they had to see each other in person to get to know each other better. Their first visit went so great that they started dating shortly after and soon Michael moved from Ithaca, New York to Minnesota to be closer to Kari.

​Since Michael is new to the area, they spend a lot of their dates exploring. One date brought them to Stillwater, Minnesota. Kari and Michael were hanging out on the docks, admiring the October colors and the running river water. Kari turned to move on to their next destination when Michael pulled her back, asking her to wait a moment, and pulled a ring out of his pocket. Kari was so surprised as she didn’t see it coming and was thrilled that he had asked her to marry him. She had found her man. They then spent the rest of their evening in a euphoric state as they enjoyed dinner at Lola’s, talking about the highlights of their relationship and the exciting moments to come.

Michael and Kari, it was so much fun to travel back to Stillwater and to Lola’s with you to hear more about your story of how you two got engaged. You two were so attentive and such rockstars in the super cold weather – we still giggle when we think about Michael saying, “This wall is really cold” during one of the poses. We loved talking about all things technology and hearing about Michael’s new job. You two are on such an exciting journey and we can’t wait to hang out more on your wedding day!

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