how we met
We had chemistry, in chemistry.
Tyler and I met back in high school when we were 16 and 17 (High school sweethearts!) , but I had actually had a crush on Tyler since I was 12! (really embarrassing because he had no clue who I was, I know.) Kind of Funny story, In high school I they had a strict NO PHONE policy, and of course my alarm goes off in my book bag so I get ISS and Tyler is in there that very same day for something. Even though we weren’t allowed to talk Tyler made a point to flirt with me the entire time we were in there. (so romantic haha I know.) I didn’t know anything about him so we never talked outside of the instance, but a year and a half later I had Chemistry with him when I was a Junior and He was a senior. He sat pretty far away from me so I never had the chance to talk to him or get to know him for the first weeks of class. Whoever sat in front of me kept talking to me, so our teacher switched their seat with Tyler’s and the rest is history!
how they asked
A little back story: I’m a photographer, and about a year ago Tyler walked me out to this private spot on the Rappohannock river. It was really difficult to get there but he wanted to show me a really great spot for photos with future clients. Once we got to the “spot” the sun was setting so there was a glow on the water, a nice breeze, and we talked for a while. We had a little date there and to say the least it was perfect. I remember thinking “this is the spot I want it to happen”, but I never told him.
I asked my friend Courtney to take 5 1/2 year anniversary photos of Tyler and I since she happens to also be one of my best friends! She of course said yes, and we started planning! Luckily, nothing ever goes as planned and none of our dates worked out. On my birthday about a month ago, Tyler told Courtney, “Hey, I ordered a ring, I wanna do it when we do our anniversary pictures.” He wanted to propose and they started planning right away! Of course Courtney let me think I was planning the whole thing. We were supposed to do the session in Georgetown, but because of the Holiday and cherry blossom’s we decided to stay in Fredericksburg. I told Courtney about the location on the Rappohannock and we decided to end the session there!
I also decided late the night before to text my make-up artist to do my hair and make-up (which ended up working out so nicely)! We started the session and I noticed that Tyler was being nervous and silly, but I thought it was because of the session and wrote it off. We finished the first location quickly because the clouds started rolling in and our light was going fast, so we headed to our “secret spot”! It was pretty difficult to get to the spot so we stopped near it and shot a little, but Tyler was persistent that he wanted to get to OUR spot.
So, we trucked on and finally made it to the spot and finished out session! A few days before they decided the key phrase would be “Do you guys have anymore ideas you’d like to do?” Let’s leave it to me to keep posing myself for like 10 minutes. I’m sure I was killing Tyler! He was ready to drop to one knee and pop the question. Once I stopped he handed me a piece of paper. At first glance I was wondering why he was handing me a receipt. Then I saw hand writing, I was still oblivious thinking maybe he just handed me a cute note to read for out pictures or something.
As I read down the page I start realizing what was happening and I actually read it twice to make sure I read it correctly. it started with “from the first time I saw you…”, filled with sweet words like “I love everything about you Natalie”, and ended in “I know you have been waiting a long time for this, I hope it was worth the wait”. when I looked down her was on his knee with the most gorgeous ring I’d ever seen.
I actually forgot to answer him because I just started BAWLING. I was so overwhelmed with joy that I couldn’t even talk! So many tears of happiness, so after I could talk of course I said YES! I’m so excited to be with my best friend for the rest of my life.
