How We Met
When I, Cavin, knew I was moving to DC in 2012 to begin graduate school, I decided to join OkCupid so that I would have people to meet up with once I moved. If I got a relationship off it, great! If not, at least I’d have some fun in the city and meet people before classes began. I went on 3 dates, with David being the last. He made me laugh and that was a must-have quality for a potential boyfriend for me. We discovered that he actually went to the same high school as my cousins back in Georgia. I’m always amazed at how small the world can be!
Fast forward two years when I had graduated and decided to open my own wedding photography business, Cavin Elizabeth Photography, and David was working on his new-at-the-time business, Aventrix, when we decided to move from DC to San Diego. Working from home, we had the flexibility to up and move wherever we wanted to live. Since 2014, we’ve lived in San Diego with our two cats, Kudzu and Boots, and couldn’t be happier. We love our entrepreneur lifestyle and have made friends with so many amazing local business owners and past wedding clients of mine. We absolutely feel like we are living our best lives!
how they asked
After 5 happy years of dating, David and I got engaged on Catalina Island on September 18th. We are so happy to have embarked on this new journey of our lives and are excited to tie the knot in a year and a half.
Backstory: I love miniatures. They’re my thing. For my 22nd birthday, David gifted me a handful of miniature parcels that were filled with miniature versions of some of my favorite books, along with a miniature pair of NYC Ballet tickets to represent the larger gift he gave me. I loved it and it almost made me cry, which is a lot coming from me.
Catalina: We planned to enjoy a picnic with champagne, cheese, bread, and sweets on the balcony of our hotel the first night we were in Catalina. After a full day of adventuring around this tiny island, we returned to our quaint hotel, the Avalon, where we began preparing our food. In this charming and old-school room, I heard a knock at the large wooden door. The hotel bellhop handed me three miniature parcels with the tiniest address label written with our hotel’s address.
I certainly had a feeling what was coming but didn’t let myself feel too sure in order to avoid being “disappointed” if I was wrong. We sat down at our table with the parcels just in time for a sunset that was accompanied by a cool island breeze. I began to open the first gift to find a small cat. David’s attempt to throw me off the proposal trail with his “anniversary gifts” was working. In the second gift, an even smaller kitten lay inside the box. As I was inspecting the tiny set of felines, David began talking about our dating history. It’s happening. His voice and his hands were shaking as he told me how much our relationship meant to him and that he always knew he wanted to marry me. To my love-for-being-uniquely-me happiness, I didn’t put my hand over my mouth like every woman on YouTube when he asked me to marry him. And of course, I said yes.
