How We Met
Tyler and I met through a dating app, but it wasn’t your typical dating app experience. Neither of us joined the app expecting anything great, it was more for fun to pass the time. While looking on the app, I recognized a friend from high school who was in a committed relationship. It confused me at first, but then I realized it wasn’t my high school friend but the man standing beside him, Tyler. As Tyler and I began to communicate, we bonded on the fact that one of his best friends in college was a guy I had known for a long time in my hometown of Fredericksburg, VA. At the time we met, Tyler was living in Lorton, VA but soon moved to Richmond, VA after the first couple of dates. Because of the distance, I was hesitant to put my heart and soul into a relationship in a fear of being hurt. As skeptical as I was, Tyler never gave up and every time we saw each other, our relationship grew to the point where we let our guards down.
how they asked
Tyler and I had been together for 2 years. During this time, I had always wanted to do a couple’s photo session but due to the fact that Tyler hates taking pictures and that our work schedules conflicted with each other, it didn’t happen. My birthday was coming up in November and as a gift, Tyler contacted my aunt Melissa Collier, the owner of Honeysuckle Rose Photography, and scheduled a couple’s photo session. Little did I know that Tyler, with the help from his big sister, Kate, had planned a surprise proposal. My aunt was well aware of what was going on, as well as each of our families. We did everything that seemed like a normal couples photo shoot at Chatham Manor in Fredericksburg, VA. Tyler and I were towards the end of the shoot when all of a sudden the temperature dropped, the wind picked up, and you could feel drizzles of rain. As we tried to walk quickly through finishing our shoot, my aunt said she wanted to try some pictures with chalkboards. She asked us to face away from each other and to write down three to four words of what we loved about one another.
Then, she asked us to turn around. While my chalkboard said typical answers of why you love someone, Tyler’s chalkboard said, “Will you marry me?” I was so shocked and started to cry.
I walked up to him as he got down on one knee and he pulled out the most gorgeous ring that he had been hiding in his sock. It was then I realized why he had been so stiff for some of the poses during the photo shoot. He was so excited and nervous and as he asked me to be his wife, I bent down and told him YES!
Literally minutes later, the sun came out into the most golden sky as we were overlooking downtown Fredericksburg. That was the most beautiful day of my life that I will always treasure with the pictures that captured it all. We will be getting married December 9, 2017 at Stevenson Ridge in Spotsylvania, VA.
