Max & Kim- Photographed by Hill Collective

MAX & KIM – REAL ENGAGEMENT

Wild love stories, how they began and their journey, are what we swoon over at Wild Hearts. The dreamers and wanderers. The magical destinations. That raw love before the big day.

Max and Kims’ beautiful engagement shoot took place in not one but two stunning locations- amongst florals in the Victorian style glass houses of the Auckland Winter Gardens as well as in a wildly rustic farm setting.

Photographer Leanna Hill of Hill Collective perfectly captured the couples wild sense of adventure together.

“Run wild…. until you find someone just as wild to run with.”

The Love Story:

In our first year of University we were in the same hall and the flats next to each other – essentially the same floor. Our first conversation was about the internet booklet which we had to share amongst our flats. We both had the idea that we would have to see each other again to get the book as there was only one. We were both studying health science so spent a lot of time together. We went on a lot of adventures and explored our new city together. Max always stole flowers out of gardens and would surprise me with them. On a trip to Tunnel Beach was where Max asked me to officially be his girlfriend 4 months later.

The Proposal

We had been talking about going on date day for a long time as we had not been out together for a while. Max suggested we go to Euro which is where we went on our 1 year anniversary for dinner followed by the reverse bungy. It was the day of the cyclone earlier in 2017 in Auckland, the bridge had been shut and re-opened and Max was very calm about the whole situation. He called the restaurant and confirmed that they would be open. We had an amazing dinner and walked to the reverse bungy, it had started to rain but Max could not contain his excitement so I agreed to still go on it. As we were shot up into the sky max asked me in Afrikaans to marry him (I (Kim) am originally from South Africa, so that was extra special and romantic), he had the most beautiful ring around his pinky.

Shoot Location

The Auckland Winter Gardens was a perfect place to do our engagement shoot on a rainy Auckland day, and we especially loved it because it reminded us of Max always stealing flowers while we were poor university students and surprising Kim with them. The farm, Kim grew up on a farm, and we both love exploring and adventuring in the outdoors so we took it as a chance to spend the day doing what we love and showcase ‘us’ on a typical day off – going on an adventure.