{Revisiting My Favorite Engagement Portraits of the Year}
Continuing on with my recap of 2025, today I am sharing my favorite engagement portraits of the year! Last week, I shared “Best of 2025 Weddings” and this week I’m diving into a few more! Engagement sessions are where everything begins. They’re unhurried, meaningful, and rooted in connection. It’s the one-on-one time I get with each couple in order to get to know them and lean on their story a little more. This year brought me the most incredible couples…thoughtful, fun, and deeply in love. Looking back at my engagement sessions from 2025, I’m reminded how much I love this season and the space it gives me to create with intention.
The locations this year were such a dream to work with! From the timeless elegance of The Mansion to the moody, elevated atmosphere of The Perky Parrot, each space allowed me to play with light, texture, and framing in a way that felt intentional and refined. I’m endlessly inspired by how a strong background, a soft foreground, and the right moment coming together can turn something simple into something cinematic.
As I curated this collection, choosing favorites felt nearly impossible, as it always does. Every gallery holds images that stop me in my tracks…not just because of how they look, but because of how they feel. Every couple brought something different, and every session holds a memory I’m so grateful for. These images aren’t just engagement photos, they’re the beginning of stories I’ll get to continue telling next year.
To my 2026 couples: I cannot wait for your wedding days! If your engagement sessions were any indication, the celebrations ahead are going to be filled with beauty and so much love. Thank you for trusting me with this chapter! I’m counting down the days until we do it all again!


















Welcome to the CB Blog! I’m Carissa Behounek, a photographer based in Algona, IA that specializes in weddings, seniors and babies. I hope you grab some coffee (or a margarita) and enjoy viewing my latest work and getting a little peek into my life! I’m thrilled you stopped by!




