Leesburg Virginia Lifestyle Fashion Shoot | Alexa - Hannah Smith Photography | Southern California natural light, wedding and lifestyle portrait photographer

We met in a coffee shop. It’s kind of a funny story now that I think about it. I was at my local Starbucks one afternoon attempting to tackle this never ending cycle of emails & editing.. key word here: “attempting” 😉

But I kept getting stopped. I felt a strong tug on my heart and I knew there was someone God wanted me to talk to. You see, every once in a while he will bring someone to my attention to encourage or simply chat with, and I recognized this familiar nudge.

On this particular afternoon, I was caught in one of those moments where all of me wanted to tune that voice out with a good Spotify playlist and a long list of to-do’s, I’m pretty sure I even went as far as saying “Right now God? I’m sort of in the middle of something..maybe you could check back later” but in grace & lovingkindness he whispered gently, “Hannah girl, if you can’t be faithful in the little things, how can I possibly entrust you with the big ones?” It hit me. These opportunities were my prayers being fulfilled. Often times we tell God we want to be apart of his big plans for our lives, yet we won’t allow him to disrupt our agenda in the moment.

I decided I was in, shut my macbook and began scanning the room anxiously. I was starting to feel like maybe I had missed my window of opportunity while debating with God. But before I could even mumble “Ooh well, I guess we will get em’ next time!” back to God, he turned my eyes towards a girl sitting up at the window seat on her computer. In those few moments following he made it extremely clear she was the one. I was suppose to walk up to her and introduce myself. [Ps incase you were wondering, this was entirely out of the realm of my comfort zone just so we are clear. ok, proceed] So I got up, nonchalantly threw my cup away & began introducing myself…up until I realized she had headphones in and didn’t hear a word I had said….*cue the awkwardness growing* hahah honestly the fact she wasn’t weirded out by this point was pure evidence the Lord was behind every detail, orchestrating it all.

You see, He just wanted my obedience. It wasn’t the size of the assignment, it was the size of my faith he was most concerned with. He knows our hearts greatest desire and truly delights in giving us GOOD gifts

As we got to talking, I learned that Alexa was a lifestyle & fashion blogger [I feel like this is where I need to inform you, I had been trying to get connected with a fashion blogger this entire year, with no luck!] so I mean it wholeheartedly when I say I had the biggest grin painted on my face in awe of how God was at work in that moment. This conversation lead to follow up emails about collaborating and dreaming up this shoot together! When we met up in Downtown Leesburg for this session we had the best time chatting about life, fashion, theatre, calligraphy and all thing business! Alexa is sort of the jack of all trades and just a complete artist in every essence of the word. You have got to check out her Blog (because it’s amazing) and follow her journey over on instagram! Girlfriend has got BIG things in store for her and I am just so excited that God allowed our paths to intersect.

If I could leave you with any encouragement it would be this: lean into where God is leading you, say yes in submission even if it feels silly and especially when it looks uncomfortable. God delights in blessing us and invites us to be apart of his bigger plan each day. Choose it.