4th of July Bluffton/HHI Getaway

4th of July weekend was the first weekend in months that Dustin and I had together where we had literally zero plans. No wedding. No work. No pressing stuff around the farm. Just a relaxing holiday weekend to do whatever we wanted with. We talked about maybe going out to dinner, working on some random stuff around the farm…basically whatever we felt like doing. Instead I woke up Friday morning and he was grinning ear to ear…”I was going to wait until a little later to tell you, but I’m taking you to Bluffton this weekend, so pack your bag.”

I was so excited, and so appreciative that he made surprise plans for us. Our work keeps us apart so much of the time, so we love taking little getaways when we have the time, and it makes it even better when it’s a surprise. We packed our stuff, loaded up the dogs, and headed toward HHI. He’d already made hotel reservations but we got there before check-in, so we went to a park I’d shot a session at last year and let the dogs swim. Then we went back to the hotel, got ready, went to dinner at the Dispensary, and went out to the island for 4th of July festivities. I don’t think we’d ever watched a legit fireworks show in our 5 years together, so that was super fun, and HHI did not disappoint.

The rest of the weekend was spent completely leisurely. We walked downtown Bluffton with the dogs and even got to hang outside with them at the Old Town Dispensary and have happy hour drinks, we went to the beach, ate tons of good food including at our favorite spot, the Old Oyster Factory, we spent time with Dustin’s sister who lives on the island, we stayed up late, slept in, we explored, and we had literally the most amazing time and made some really great memories.

I only had my iPhone with me at times, and other times I brought along my 35mm film camera. The images below are a mix of the two, but you can probably tell which are my phone haha. I’m so happy we have these special memories to look back on…they make me so happy already, and I can only imagine how much more I will love them when we look back a few years down the road.