Oh my gosh, you guys — aren’t the cherry blossoms just beautiful?

And . . . invisible?

Before we got another few inches of snow (!) in the D.C. area on Monday, the cherry blossoms were a wee bit dormant. Despite my “final farewell” comment last week, winter has lingered into spring. I was downtown on a run-through for our upcoming Capital Photo History Tour on the monuments (yay!) — and though I wish we could have seen the blossoms on that adventure, I’ll admit to feeling partially relieved they were still asleep.

We’d planned to have our engagement photo session downtown for months. I imagined Spencer and I walking between the ancient trees, lightly walking through fallen petals, and pictured the Tidal Basin spreading out before us. I knew we were taking a gamble by scheduling our shoot so far in advance, but the blossoms had already peaked this time last year — and I figured that even if they weren’t at their height, they’d be doing something.

Nope.

Days before our scheduled sunrise shoot, our photographers emailed to see about a Plan B. We relocated to a local park for the “golden hour,” moving between several spots on the grounds — beach, trees, barns — for our 90-minute adventure. I felt like I blinked and the time slid right by — and in the end? The park shoot is probably more visually-interesting than the blooms would have been.

And if we’d had to go downtown by 7 a.m. for our cherry blossom shoot . . . only to discover no cherry blossoms? Well, I would have been mighty cranky.

Not that it would have ever gotten to that point. I check the blossom cam, like, every two minutes.

So the engagement session we did have was phenomenal — and even though it was chilly, Spence had his arm around me often enough that I didn’t notice! And I was running on adrenaline. We ducked in and out of our cars (with heat!) as we moved around the park, taking shots in different locations, and the ladies at Birds of a Feather Photography are just fab.

Our “sneak peek” shot is up on their blog now — and ladies, check out that $6 dress! I know it’s uncouth to brag about costs, but really. I’ll be riding high off that bargain for the rest of the year.

If only I could have snagged a $6 wedding dress . . .