Looking back: an anniversary photoshoot in the Keukenhof

Anniversary photoshoot of husband and wife looking at each other strolling through the keukenhof garden full of blooming tulips

It’s been a long, dark winter and yesterday it rained all day again.

Everyone came home from school soaked, and when Lavinia brought me a magnolia blossom that had been blown from the tree, I knew I needed to search for my own sunlight. This couple’s photoshoot in the Keukenhof is so bursting with colour & love that it’s perfect for many a rainy day.

I’ve talked with many people lately and they say the same thing – normally the winters don’t get to them but this one has been extra long, dark, and difficult. That’s why I decided it’s time to revisit Monique and Carlos’s anniversary photoshoot in the Keukenhof last April. They have a sweet anniversary tradition of doing a photoshoot together, and last year they asked me be the photographer.

A couple both wearing black shirts and with dark brown hair sit in front of a colourful flowerbed in the Keukenhof. The husband looks at the camera smiling and the wife kisses his cheek with her right hand on his opposite cheek and her eyes closed.

Monique & Carlos moved to the Netherlands from Brazil in August of 2021

We met them at our church in Eindhoven, though in the beginning it was more often online than in person. I have only respect for people who braved international moves during the pandemic. Monique & Carlos began working for DAF and establishing themselves in a new land. And I was immediately taken by how Monique & Carlos expressed themselves and their beliefs. Monique & Carlos love to travel. They love their family, they love their faith and helping others. And naturally, Monique & Carlos love each other.

A husband and wife share a loving embrace under a blooming magnolia tree in a sun dappled Keukenhof

They would never have met without a bit of divine intervention

Monique joined our church, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, as a young adult. Carlos, also a member, was actually from the other side of Brazil and there was little chance of meeting.

But things swung in their favour when they both moved to the same city. Monique moved to Ponta Grossa to work, and Carlos moved there to study. Still, though they attended the same church building in Brazil, they never met because two different congregations met in the same building at different times. They even attended the same institute building but never met because they attended on different days of the week.

Those chances improved considerably when a new regional church leader was called and he asked all members to attend the congregations where they lived. Monique, being new to the church, did not realise that congregations were made geographically. She’d just been attending the ward she had because that’s where she’d been baptised and that is where she had friends. But she decided to listen to the regional leader, feeling that by doing so she was also listening to what God wanted her to do.

A man hugs his wife close while looking straight at the camera. The wife looks softly to the left. There are tulips and a fountain behind them

The first Sunday’s were not very comfortable. She did not know anyone. And with an eye to her future, she knew she did not always want to be alone at church. Monique especially noted that she wanted someone with her same beliefs to grow old with. She noticed Carlos, and he her. But they didn’t start talking until a friend from her old congregation who knew Carlos encouraged him to help Monique feel welcome in the new place.

At first they only talked a bit. But Monique felt in her heart that he was a very special person and she started to wonder what it would be like to marry someone like him – someone who would support her faith journey that up to this point had felt sometimes very lonely. Monique noticed these feelings but buried them as she was working multiple jobs at the time. It was easier to work hard and not think about such things.

Black and white image of a husband and wife about to kiss in a garden

a woman lays her head on the chest of her man. They are wearing black shirts and have dark brown hair. The husband smiles down at her and she smiles at the camera

Things came to a head one night during a championship football game. She was playing goalie and suddenly a player from the opposing team appeared and kicked the ball hard into Monique’s hand. The impact broke her hand and she had to go to the hospital. Having the broken hand meant that Monique had to take time off of work to recover. She could no longer hide from her thoughts and had time to think about her future.

During this time, she decided to attend institute. The lesson that night was about eternal marriage, a key belief of our church. When the teacher asked Monique to read a quote aloud, she started to cry because she realised the message of the quote was for her personally. And she realised she had begun to have feelings for Carlos.

At this point, Carlos did not waste any time. He asked her out and she tentatively accepted. They went out on a first date for pizza, with Carlos cutting her pizza for her because she was not able to with her broken hand. They then dated for a year and a half before getting married in 2018. Monique says she feels so grateful that between God and a lot of prayer, she was led to meet Carlos. It was so perfect because she could marry the love of her life.

A man stands next to a woman with his arm around her waist. They are standing with their eyes closed in front of blooming tulip beds and trees and are just about to kiss.

Monique & Carlos wanted to highlight their move to the Netherlands in their fifth anniversary photoshoot

Monique and Carlos have a perfectly lovely way of commemorating their wedding anniversary each year with a new photoshoot. And of course since moving to the Netherlands, they wanted to highlight that change by planning a photoshoot in the famous Keukenhof garden. When Monique messaged me about the possibility, I was very excited. We worked down from a couple of dates to choose one best for all of our schedules and decided to car pool to save on costs.

I was also aware what the limitations and advantages were of attempting a photoshoot in the Keukenhof.

A bit about the Keukenhof & photographing in public gardens

The Keukenhof is, for all intents and purposes, a Spring garden. It usually opens in late March and follows the natural blooming season of tulips and other Spring bloomers before closing mid May. That is to say the season is limited, the park is very full of your closest friends & relations from around the world, and you can only hope the Dutch Spring weather decides its your day to be blessed with bit of that yellow warmth we call the sun.

It is always a good idea before photographing in a public garden to check the guidelines on the website before visiting. Some locations require a small photography fee and others request that you not use a tripod in order to not impede the flow of visitors. Always check and show up with respect is a motto of mine. That said, there’s no guidelines for photoshoots on the Keukenhof website. In placing Monique and Carlos in their poses, I took the flow of visitors into account in choosing locations, and used a wide open aperture to blur the background on several occasions.

A woman and a man stand facing each other. The man holds the woman's head in his hands and they gaze into each other's eyes while standing in a garden

Black and white image of a man dipping a woman back to kiss her in front of a long row of trees and a water fountain

Basically my priority list for setting up a shot looked like: check lighting first, location second, then with aperture in mind I helped pose Monique & Carlos (though I must say they were naturals!), and lastly I timed the shot to limit as many other visitors in the frame as possible. Photographing carefully first makes editing easier after the photoshoot.

As a side note, those red tulips can throw some considerable colour casting on skin so be aware of how colours of blooms en mass reflect.

Never hurts to finish a photoshoot or a visit to the Keukenhof with fresh stroopwafels

After about 90 minutes of photography and walking through the gardens, we were done and very happy with the images we were able to get as well as the beautiful weather. To close out our photoshoot, we bought fresh made stroopwafels from the stand before heading home to Eindhoven.

A man and woman stand with their arms around each other as they wait in line at an orange van selling fresh Dutch waffles

A woman and a man stand and smile at the camera in front of the orange Fresh Dutch waffles van after buying their stroopwafels

Anniversary photoshoots are a great way to write the next chapter of your story together & keep the love alive

Your love story doesn’t end on the day you get married. On the contrary, new chapters keep writing themselves as you go forward. I really love Monique & Carlos’s anniversary tradition of doing a photoshoot together. Its such a lovely way of keeping the warmth of your relationship alive and it gives you something to look back to when the going gets a bit rough.

Where would you want to have your anniversary photoshoot? What would you want to do with the photos?