Well friends, we are ENGAGED!

After dating long-distance for nearly five years, the time has finally come. There is a gorgeous ring on my left hand and the love of my life is going to be my HUSBAND. What?!?! I want to savor every moment of this joyous season. I also wanted to share all of the amazing images from our proposal shoot. My incredibly talented mentor, Wendy of Apt. B Photo, shot these for us. Go follow her over @aptbphoto on Instagram and give her some love! I promise you’ll love her as much as we do. So, without further adieu, let’s get into it! I’ll be adding quite a bit of commentary, so grab some popcorn and enjoy!

If you don’t know our story Kemper and I started dating our freshman year of high school. We first met in our current issues class, but he was SO quiet. Then, second semester, our seats in English got moved together and he started to talk a little more. The first night of spring break, after flirting in class that day, I commented on an Instagram post asking for his number. Let it be known I made the first move 😉

That week I was traveling to Texas to house hunt and tour schools since my family was moving there shortly. We texted a ton and I was amazed at how easy it was to talk to him. After sharing our mutual love of super heroes, he casually mentioned we should see the new Captain America movie together sometime. I totally freaked out! Hahaha. Our first date was a group date (thanks Mom and Dad) to a Mexican restaurant and then to see Captain America Winter Soldier. The whole movie we both wanted to hold hands, but were too scared to make the move – lol! We were such babies. We couldn’t even drive ourselves there!

I asked Kemper later, “You know I’m moving to Texas, right?”. Neither of us really dated before, and I was never interested in high school relationships anyway. I was sure moving halfway across the country would be the end of it. His reply was “I’d rather try and it work out, than not try and miss out”. I thought that was fair. Fast forward almost 4.5 years of long distance dating, and here we are. We’ve FaceTimed almost every day, and taken countless flights. We’ve grown up together, always committed to making us work. Kemper, you’re my absolute best friend in this world. Life is better by your side.

Now, the proposal story. Leading up to my trip to Savannah I kind of had a feeling he might propose this weekend. There are a few factors why. First, I didn’t want to be proposed to in Dallas and since we’re long distance, that only left him a few opportunities. Second, I hate surprises and he knows this. He made sure to drop a few subtle hints. Lastly, one of our strengths is communication. We talk a lot! Our relationship depends on it. So, we had many conversations about marriage and timing.

Saturday before the shoot Kemper took me to an all-vegan restaurant in Savannah called Fox and Fig Cafe. It was so yummy!! I got the garlic cheesy breadsticks (more like pizza), and he got a burger. We ordered a slice of cheesecake to share and it was delicious. Then we drove out to Tybee Island. I knew we had a shoot scheduled with Wendy, but didn’t know a ton of details.

When we pulled up to Tybee it was PACKED. There were people everywhere, y’all. We walked onto the beach and met up with Wendy. She suggested we go to the north beach, where it would hopefully be more calm. At this point, I had expected him to propose BEFORE we ever saw Wendy. And with all of the people, I was a little thrown off.

We drove over to the other beach and it was much better! Wendy started the session with a pose or two, and I was in full photoshoot mode. (See the first photo) Then, she said “Okay, now take a step back from each other…and I’ll tell you what to do next”. I took a step back and looked down to adjust my dress. When I looked back up Kemper had a ring box in his hands and was getting down on one knee. He asked, “Will you marry me?” and I started giggling and said “Of course!”.

For the record, I actually did NOT cry at all during the proposal or the shoot. I kept waiting for it to hit me, and it never did! If you know me, I cry easily so I thought it was so funny. I literally cried thinking about it on the plane coming to Savannah and I started getting emotional on the way out to Tybee. Once we were in the car after the shoot though, I totally lost it.