It was a COLD day in March when Greg, Amber and I met. Although, to be expected, but we still hoped for comfortable temps. I feel like we are still thawing out from last week, and I was even wearing a coat! I don’t know how these two still rocked this session without Eskimo gear. 😉 HA! Not only did they conquer the temps like champs, they also conquered other obstacles like a little rock scramble in their nice attire. Let’s just notice that Amber was wearing HEELS in a lot of these photos!!! Get it girlllll! Haha! I loved my time with these two, especially since we went on an adventure around Great Falls National Park! I’m always down for a good adventure, and these two were ready!
When Amber initially contacted me, her last name caught my attention. I thought there was a chance we were related and then I noticed they booked my great cousin’s previous home, which is now a wedding venue called the Great Marsh Estate! There were too many coincidences but it turned out we weren’t related. Regardless, we were excited to connect!! 🙂 I’m glad this engagement session brought all of us together to get to know each other before the big day! Greg and Amber are a sweet, beautiful, selfless couple. Greg always helped Amber around the park, especially when she was all dressed up walking on uneven surfaces, which was sweet to document and admire. 🙂 I love getting to know my couples during our casual time together so then their wedding day is just like photographing friends of mine!! 🙂 Cannot wait for August!!!
Greg & Amber’s Love Story
How Greg and Amber Met
from Amber’s perspective
Greg and I met at Virginia Tech volunteering for our church’s worship team. He ran sound and I sang. During one particular early morning setup for Sunday’s service, I pulled out my mandolin for sound check. Clearly baffled by this new addition to the instrument lineup and it being much to early in the morning to ask he labeled it “Thingy” on the soundboard. When it came time for sound check he ran down the line- “Vocals sing something. Okay good. Guitar play something. Okay good. Ah, thingy? Play something?” he said with hesitation. “It’s a mandolin,” I answered into the mic. “Okay, play,” he said, unphased by learning the instrument’s name. I strummed a bit but nothing was getting picked up into the system. “You can stop- I’ll have to check the mic cord.” As we continued through practice he would use the time between songs and pauses to check sound again on my instrument in order to figure out the underlying sound issue. “Strum the thingy,” he would say. “It’s a mandolin,” I would answer every time, somewhat irked that he wouldn’t call this most amazing instrument by its name. He of course had seen that this somewhat annoyed me and began to get great amusement out of the back and forth which he continued to bring up whenever he saw me. Over the next few weeks we began to “subtly” do everything we could to be around each other more and more often- chance encounters to hang out outside of church and school, guised inquiries about the other’s Tuesday night IHOP intentions, 24/7 texting that became noticeable to those around us- both of us too stubborn to call it what it actually was. It was only the day before I graduated that I finally asked him out and he said yes. This was just the beginning of our long distance dating.
How Greg Proposed to Amber
from Greg’s perspective
In January Amber was finally able to move up to northern Virginia, closing the distance we had endured to two and a half years. I knew I had to plan something super special and began outlining how and where I wanted to do it as well as activities that could span the entire day- ice skating, maybe a nice dinner, and the Meadowlark Botanical Garden winter light display (It was actually a year prior on her birthday we accidentally stumbled upon this light display which unexpectedly had knocked our socks off). I knew this would be the perfect romantic setting to pop the question. The plan looked great on paper, but on the day I was planning to execute my amazing proposal, I hit a few snags- namely the frigid temperatures and icy winds kept all outdoor activities in the area closed. But having already promised an amazing date, I ended up taking her to dinner and a movie hoping that the next day would fair better proposal weather. Sunday was make or break it day since it was the last day Meadowlark’s light display was open for the year and I anxiously kept checking my phone to see if the weather would shut down my proposal plans. Finally it looked like the weather was going to hold and I picked up Amber for her surprise date. When we got to the Town Center for Ice skating she was so excited (and may have possibly been jumping up and down) and we both had a blast- her managing a bumpy backwards skate and me mostly excited I managed not to fall. After we replenished our energy with a nice dinner we got back in the car to make our way to the light show. Once inside, we slowly started working our way through the gardens surrounded by beautiful and animated lights. I was trying to talk about all the things we had done in the past year but was very distracted trying to keep an eye out for my sister who was hiding in the bushes somewhere with a camera to capture the moment. We eventually made it to the light tunnel I had planned on proposing in. So pulling the ring from my pocket, I got down on one knee and asked her to marry me and she said yes!
Thank you, Greg and Amber, for not only bearing through the cold temps but being adventurous and down for anything!!! You made our time together so much fun. 🙂 Cannot waittttt for this summer! XOXO!
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