Their Session: Red Mill Museum & Private Residence, NJ

If you love sunny summer days, wine, cute pups, and nature, this summer Red Mill Museum engagement session is for you! Emma and Phil planned such a fun adventure for their session where we got to explore the beautiful area in downtown Clinton and then explore the many acres of their family’s backyard. This backyard is where they’ll get married next year – how special is that?! It’s an absolutely unreal property with endless land, a gorgeous stream, greenery galore, and so many spots for photos! I can’t wait to be back here next summer to capture their wedding day here!

Emma and Phil are truly a power couple in my eyes, and I’d assume all of their friends and families, as well! They have so many fun facts and amazing life stories (like Emma competing in chicken shows growing up and Phil being an incredible woodworker)! I could listen to them share all the fun stuff they’ve seen and done in their lives forever! They always have a new project, new farm animal, or fun new adventure they’re going on.

When I asked each of them their fave quality of the other, they shared the sweetest thoughts! Emma said, “Phil is the most understanding person I’ve ever met. He makes me feel so safe and comforted all the time. He understands all my emotions and is always in tune with my feelings. He is so ambitious at work and in our life. He’s unapologetically himself all the time and he always pulls me out of my comfort zone in the best ways.” While Phil said, “No one has ever understood me in my life like Emma does. She is always 5 steps ahead of me and I feel like she has a direct line into my brain. I can be a bit sporadic and she helps me to work through my thoughts. She also makes me want to be a better person for her every day. I’ve never cared about someone in the way that I care about her. I think it’s because she makes me feel so much like my authentic self and I love it. She’s also pretty amazing at work, baking, life, friendships and everything else. I could go on forever.” How incredible are they?!

Keep scrolling for more of their love story and cute engagement session photos! 🙂

Their Love Story

Emma told me, “I know you probably hear this all the time but we really feel like we are soulmates.” And I knew it was going to be a good one from there! 🙂

Since the day they met, they both truly felt so understood by one another, more than they ever had with anyone else. Emma sat down next to Phil in a class in college because she was late and it was the only seat left in the room. She was mad because that was the day we were picking assigned seats and she didn’t want to have to sit in the front row! The only seat left was next to Phil.

Phil paid little attention in class and it was hard for her to focus because he made her laugh constantly! He convinced her to study with him, and they would stay up all night talking about everything except school. This friendship went on for years, and while all their friends expected them to end up together, they took their time finding their way back to each other! Emma had moved to California and they hadn’t talked in a few years, but she said, “as fate would have it, Phil started traveling to California for work.” They were both single by then, started talking every day, and planned tons of trips to see each other!

She said they would “meet in fun cities like Austin for a long weekend and get lost together. Those will be some of my favorite memories forever. Right when the pandemic hit Phil suggested that I come to DC to stay with him for a “few weeks” and we’ve been living together ever since. We knew within a few weeks of me living with him that we would be together forever. We got engaged in January after officially dating for just over a year and absolutely no one was surprised. Everyone says this but I really do feel like I’m going to marry my best friend. We do everything together, and I wonder every day how I could get so lucky. He’s a bit of an old soul – loves history, antiques, woodworking, traveling and having a deep connection with life.”

Truly, once you meet these two, you can just feel that connection instantly! If you’re already falling in love with these two like I have, you’ll have to hear the proposal story! <3

Their Proposal

Phil and Emma were living outside of Washington DC at the time and dreamt of living out in the country someday with a little farm! They spend a lot of time exploring little towns in VA and get their produce from a farm in VA once a month! On one of the trips, they were having lunch in the downtown area, had a couple beers, and decided to check out the adorable family-run jewelry store that had been around forever.

Emma said, “I had never tried rings on before but knew I wanted something simple and timeless. I tried on a beautiful solitaire that was set in rose gold and loved it and told Phil that I wanted something like that, but in gold.

Fast forward to December, we had planned a trip for our anniversary to the Inn at Gristmill Square in VA, I was not expecting him to propose on the trip because we had talked about getting engaged in the first half of 2021. We ended up getting COVID (ugh) and having to postpone the anniversary trip to early January. The new weekend rolled around and I thought nothing of it – but looking back I should have known. He was so anxious all week!

The morning we were leaving for the trip he woke up at 5am and was raking the yard (???) in January (???) Duh!

We left for our little weekend getaway and got to the Inn and there was this cute little gift shop attached to the registration desk at the Inn with all sorts of stuff and I was just wandering around looking at everything and Phil was like can we just go to the room?? (another red flag because Phil loves little gift shops, and knows I do too so he would usually never rush me out!) but I still didn’t think anything of it!

We got to the room and opened a bottle of wine and he told me to close my eyes because he got me a little anniversary gift when I opened them he was down on one knee!!! It was exactly what I wanted. Complete privacy, and time to spend alone before sharing the news with anyone else! We drank wine and laughed and cried and soaked up our little moment. It was perfect. Turns out the ring he bought was the exact diamond I had tried on over the summer – they still had it so he just had it reset in gold for me.” What an absolute DREAM! <3

Emma and Phil (& Bruce),

It’s been SO fun getting to know you two and your love story since we first met! I loved getting to spend this day with you two and seeing the place you’ll be getting married! I’m SO freaking excited to capture your love again next summer! xo

If you loved this summer Red Mill Museum engagement session, you may also love this session at the same location!

Summer Red Mill Museum Engagement Session, NJ | Emma & Phil

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