These two made St. Louis feel like a dream destination – I love when social media friends become IRL friends.

Many of you know that, in addition to photography, I work a 9-5 marketing job that sends me to different parts of the country. Well, this past February/March, I was sent to St. Louis and, while I was there, I was itching to book a session and take full advantage of being in a new town.

I’ve been following Shi & Tonio on Tiktok for YEARS…and just like their other 2.5M TikTok followers, I’ve absolutely loved watching their content and the snippets of their love story they share online 🤍 So, though we’d never met, I took a chance and reached out to see if they’d be down to frolic through town and let me be their third-wheel.

Spoiler alert: They we’re DOWN 🤩

We all know how hard it is to make new friends in your twenties so I definitely do not take for granted how quickly we all vibed and how much joy it brought me to find friendship with Shi and Tonio. We laughed, snuck into hotel lounges, shooed away creepy cat-callers (#citylife), explored downtown, and bonded over being people who love Jesus but also love to cuss #sorrynotsorry lol). Meeting them felt like reconnecting with old friends and I can’t wait to finish this styled session up & share even more!