Mary + Alex: Ramapo Reservation Maternity Session

Maternity

Dec 6

Family of five just

became a family of six!

Alex & Mary are something out of love novel; years in the making and a love wins all kinda attitude. These two love birds story starts waaaaayyyyyy back to when I had hair so lets say high school circa 2010-2011. I could be wrong but I’m almost positive because I’ve known Alex since when he would come in all camo’d out like he was ready for recruitment back in middle school LOL. Marys been such an angel since since that one time she gave me her ticket to go experience the ‘Watch The Throne’ tour our senior year and that happened to be my first REAL REAL concert. Man, Alex and I were on cloud nine (literally tho lol). Alex and I have been through so many different experiences together, separately and now his one true experience; family man. I’ve always had and still do have the upmost respect for Alex because of how he manages to show up day in and day out to grind for his family. Mary is an overall saint and as a full-time mommy, acting as educator and nurturer to three beautiful boys and now soon to a little girl, she’s on the right track to raising young princes into young kings; they both are. Alex & Mary are basically building an empire but for now they have a solid basketball team with a MVP All-Star 6th Man of the Year award 5 years running on the sideline waiting for his 15 points in two minutes.

These two are no strangers to my camera lens as they had a beautiful picnic set up at Liberty State Park in Jersey City, NJ last summer and hired me to document the beautiful occasion. The occasion was simple; to celebrate each other and how far they’ve come as they just introduced baby Dante into the world earlier in the year. Now we welcome baby #4, the point guard.

Mary and I had been sharing inspo on Pinterest for a few weeks leading up to our breath-taking maternity session. We had a few locations in mind but what Mary really wanted was to capture the fall foliage that was still in the trees so in her vision, Ramapo Valley Reservation in Mahwah, NJ was the perfect spot. She had taken photos there a few years ago and wanted those same mountains this time around. Time was in our favor since we had planned the perfect date to get those vibrant yellows and oranges during this foliage season. Mary decided she wanted to go with three outfits; one for the family portion and two for her and Alex.

We started our session with the 3 musketeers and had them go crazy around mommy and daddy. Troys a tough crowd, Roman takes a few mins to warm up and talk to me but Dante? Me and him, we cool (I taught him to fist bump) The genes on this family are STRONGGGGG because they’re all twins to mom and dad but Alex wins that one LOL. The curls?? Unmatched (lowkey wish I had curls like them). They had close friends accompany them which we were extremely grateful for helping them out this session and were able to entertain the boys so we had all the attention aimed towards Mary. I make sure to pack the changing tent for sessions like these because it makes the outfit changes easier and more appealing to have that freedom in outfit variety. Once she changed into the top and skirt, the boys went away and it was her time to shine.

I found us a quiet trail off the main walkway to start and Mary was really f*kn it upppp! Feelin’ herself and shiiii w all those arm movements making it look all sultry and like a second nature to her. We took advantage of the light, the weather and all the immaculate vibes we could soak in with Mother Earth being our playground; it felt like a small moment in a dreamscape.

Now here comes this magnificent, flowing, screaming helllll yeahhhh girlllll you work that belly, orange flowing dress and she just POPPED! Cue flower crown and bouquet made by moi because I gets a lil crafty out here and a lil pinch of “MHHMMM.” You get these time-stopping photos. Mix everything together and we have an immortalized moment documented forever<3333