It's easy to see why Carmen and Bayram’s Mount Lemmon engagement session is one of photographer CHARITY MAURER'S favourites. She tells us, "When Carmen first told me about her mountaintop inspiration for her and Bayram’s October wedding, I knew we needed another equally epic engagement session location, and the unparalleled views of Mountain Lemmon were the first to come to mind!

But truth-be-told, Carmen and Bayram’s relationship and story are about as epic as these mountain views themselves. Being the outdoor/athletic pair they are, of course it would be a race that would plan them in the same place at the same time. Carmen recounted the sweet/fun story of when they first met, and I’m going to let you hear it straight from her:

Carmen: I had recently crossed the finish line of a race and this tall guy wearing an Intel Jersey, looking like he had finished hours before me (swoon… fast guy), walked up. He asked if I had seen ‘Mike’ in an THICK accent (read: alluring)! “No idea who Mike is, but where are you from?”. He responded with “California,” which I quickly rebuked and said “NO, where are you REALLY from?” Under his breath, “Turkmenistan.” Most people don’t even know that it’s a country, let alone where it is. But me? —I already had a love affair with Central Asia, therefore, major bonus points.

As that snippet hints at, there’s a lot more to the story of this sweet pair, but today, I’ll leave it there and save the rest for their wedding feature. So stay tuned, friends!"