Alana & Kyler’s summer engagement session at the Rose Gardens at Elizabeth Park in Hartford, Connecticut was full of bountiful florals.

“The Helen S Kaman Rose Garden is the center of Elizabeth Park. It is the first municipal rose garden in the United States and the third largest rose garden in the country today. Theodore Wirth began the design of the Rose Garden in September of 1903, and it opened in June, 1904. The Rose Garden began with about 190 varieties of roses; this eventually grew to almost 1,000 by the 1950s

There are over 15,000 rose bushes and 800 varieties of old and new roses in the garden. Featured are hybrid tea, climbers, hybrid perpetual, and floribunda, shrub, and pillar roses, among others. Ramblers grow on arches that radiate from the “gazebo,” or Rustic Summer House, which is covered in Virginia creeper. The gazebo was built in 1904 as a part of the original plan. In 2005, it was reconstructed with the original plans using red cedar.” – Elizabeth Park

Alana & Kyler met in Graduate School at a classmate’s birthday party in Chicago.

“We ended up talking for a while at the party to the point where someone mouthed to me asking if I was flirting with him. I told her no, became defensive and tried to stop flirting with Kyler. (I had told myself I wouldn’t date a classmate in grad school in case it ended poorly.) We ended up watching hockey games together in a group of our classmates as Chicago’s team was in the playoffs for the Stanley Cup. Throughout the summer, Kyler would send out messages to a bunch of people to see who wanted to hang out that day and I was always excited to go see him even though I lived on the opposite end of the city. After having a fun day together a couple months later, we were texting and admitted we were both interested in trying to be more than friends. We started going on dates and have been together ever since.” – Alana