Love Expands: A Denver Botanic Gardens Maternity Session with Mercie, Danika, and Jordan

At Apollo Fields, we’ve always believed that photography is about more than images. It’s about remembering. It’s about returning. It’s about stepping back into a story years later and seeing how it has grown.

A few years ago, Terrence and I photographed Mercie and Danika’s wedding. We still remember the energy of that day—the unapologetic joy, the courage, the way their vows felt like a statement to the world: love is love, and it deserves to be celebrated. Their wedding was not just about two people uniting, but about creating a visible, powerful example for friends and family, many of whom had never witnessed a queer wedding before.

Now, their story has deepened. Their love has expanded to include Jordan, and together, they are awaiting their first child. When Terrence flew back to Colorado to photograph them at the Denver Botanic Gardens, it felt less like a job and more like being welcomed home into a love that continues to evolve.

A Return to Colorado

Colorado will always hold a place in our hearts. It’s where Apollo Fields first took root, where friendships grew wild, and where we learned to chase light in ways that still shape us today. For Terrence, returning meant not only photographing Mercie, Danika, and Jordan, but also reconnecting with old friends and familiar landscapes.

But the truest homecoming happened at the gardens—with three people whose love has carried them through laughter, loss, courage, and transformation.

A Story That Keeps Expanding

When we think back to Mercie and Danika’s early days, we remember the stories they shared with us before their wedding:

Their very first date, a simple lunch at Tokyo Joe’s, where Mercie admitted they were smitten from the start.
The courage it took for Danika to come out to an unsupportive family, losing so much in the process, but gaining the freedom to live in truth. Mercie wrote to us then: I am constantly inspired by her passion for living a free and genuine life.

These are the threads their story has always been woven from: courage, humor, resilience, and a love that refuses to dim.

And so it makes perfect sense that now, with Jordan, their circle has widened. Their family has expanded not only in number, but in strength, joy, and authenticity.

Among the Gardens

The Denver Botanic Gardens held them in that liminal way that only nature can—flowers blooming, light shifting, paths curling forward like an invitation. Terrence photographed them walking together, laughter spilling out like it always has. There were playful moments, tender pauses, and silences heavy with meaning: a hand resting on a baby bump, eyes closing in gratitude, the unspoken knowing of what is to come.

Because we’ve known them for years, nothing felt staged. It was presence. It was a family being witnessed in their truest form.

Looking Back, Looking Ahead

Before their wedding, Mercie told us they were most excited about being surrounded by chosen family, and about inspiring others to see that love takes many forms. They dreamed of building a life rooted in openness—maybe even fostering children someday, certainly staying flexible to “the ever-changing flows of life.”

Here they are now: still living that truth. Still expanding. Still open to whatever comes.

What began with a Tokyo Joe’s lunch, with nervous laughter in a little sedan, has become a family. A family that has chosen to stand in authenticity, to love boldly, and now, to welcome a child into that love.

A Toast to Love Expanding

So here’s to Mercie, Danika, and Jordan. Here’s to gardens in bloom, to mountains bearing witness, to banana slips and CrossFit falls, to vows once spoken and promises still unfolding.

This session wasn’t just about maternity photos. It was about celebrating the courage it takes to write your own story, and the beauty of a love that only grows stronger the more it expands.

And for Terrence, it was about returning to Colorado, reconnecting with friends who feel like family, and standing in the gardens with a camera in hand, heart wide open, whispering: this is love, and it deserves to be remembered.

✨ If you’re dreaming of a session that feels like your story—honest, expansive, and rooted in love—we’d be honored to document it. Reach out to us at Apollo Fields to begin the conversation about your own chapter.