When Shape magazine’s Fitness Director, Jaclyn Emerick meet her beau, Scott the small fact that they happened to live on opposite sides of the country didn’t deter their relationship one bit. Fast forward many dates and many miles later, when Scott popped the question on a trip to Costa Rica. They invited Lauren Kinsey to capture their engagement and we’ve got every photo inside THE VAULT.
From The Bride-to-be… Scott and I were living on opposite coasts when we let a mutual friend pique our interest in each other back in November of 2013. Pretty inconvenient, but that didn’t seem to matter because from very early on I think we both always knew this was going to work out.
My job as a magazine editor took me from New York City to Los Angeles at least once a month for photo shoots, events, or races, and on my quick November trip to the west coast we had our first date: hiking and sushi.
After that day, we talked on the phone for six weeks, then decided we’d officially try the very-long-distance relationship thing. Three months and many Delta miles later, Scott moved to New York City. During the next 10 months of our relationship we got new jobs, went hot air ballooning, waterfall canyoneering, trail running, racing, rappelling, and snowboarding, I broke my ankle, we turned vegetarian, did a little traveling, had some serious college football feuds, and did way too much bulldog stalking.
Then, Scott proposed on a beautiful wooden bridge in the middle of the cloud forest at dusk in Costa Rica in March of 2015. We moved in together a few weeks later, and our sweet, strange French bulldog puppy, Chandler Muriel, came home in August.
There was never a question of where we’d get married. My family moved from the Chicago suburbs to Watercolor, Florida, about seven years ago. No place has ever felt more like home than that. Besides it being one of the most beautiful places in the country, you can’t help but be happy and content when you’re there, and we want our family and best friends to experience that when we get married.
And a moment to swoon over Lauren Kinsey: We planned our wedding date around her availability. She manages to capture such special moments so authentically, and we’re so lucky to have her shoot these engagement photos and our wedding day. These are the images we’ll look at for the rest of our lives.
From Lauren Kinsey… Photographing couples can be a challenge—the nuances of their personalities, how they “fit” together, and learning what their love language is an exciting thing to see unfold. When I met Jaclyn & Scott for the first time, they had such a natural presence and calmness to them. Ghandi said that “Love is boundless like the ocean and, swelling within one, spreads itself out and, crossing all boundaries and frontiers, envelops the whole world.” The way Scott holds Jaclyn so gently, the way they move so fluidly together—all makes sense why they have chosen Watercolor as the place they will wed next year.
Photography: Lauren Kinsey Fine Art Weddings | Dress: Reformation | Venue: Watercolor Florida