Matt and Christina are absolute sweethearts! While photographing them, I saw that they share the same enthusiasm for life while photographing their cute giggles together. I love that! Although they have crazy schedules, we managed to work in a date for their engagement portraits. Boy, did we luck out!!! Thunderstorms were off in the distance as we were snapping away. Suddenly, the sun came out and we had beautiful, glowy light to photograph for a portion of the shoot. 🙂 We didn’t even think this session was going to happen, but we took a chance, and I’m glad we did! We met at Christina’s parent’s house to photograph their engagement portraits, and I appreciated the change of pace/scenery. In every direction were rolling hills as far as the eyes could see. I also loved the opportunity to meet Christina’s family and all of the pups. 🙂 I made sure to include a photo of her parent’s helping out with the pups. 😉 I love behind the scene photos to share with you all! It was an honor to get to know these two from behind the camera, and I know that their wedding day will be just as special as them!!
Matt & Christina’s Love Story
How Matt & Christina Met
from Christina’s perspective
Matt and I met online (thanks eHarmony!) back in 2013. I had chosen a career in nursing, a mostly female driven field, and Matt works in IT, a mostly male driven field, so it was very unlikely that either of us would find a love interest at work, and neither of us was really the type to want to go out and meet someone in a bar. This left us both looking for an unconventional way to meet “the one”. I had been on a few dates with other guys I had met online, and was starting to lose faith in the online dating process. During that time I took a little hiatus and didn’t log on to my eHarmony profile for several weeks, then one day I randomly decided to give it another shot and I signed back in to my account. I scrolled though some recommended matches and checked a few messages I had received, when a smiling face in the “What If?” section caught my eye. The “What If?” section on eHarmony was for potential matches who for some reason or another didn’t meet my “ideal” match specifications, but I was intrigued and I clicked on Matt’s profile. It turns out that Matt was outside of my match preferences because he lived over an hour and a half away from me at the time, but his profile checked all of the other boxes that I was looking for. He was close to his family, he loved sports, and I was definitely interested. I decided to go out on a limb and I sent him a wink (you have to love the goofy first steps of online dating communication!). The next thing I knew Matt had messaged me back and we started chatting. He was charming and witty and I couldn’t wait to meet him. About a week after our first communication we went on our first date. Matt insisted that he drive down to my hometown and when he walked into the restaurant and I remember being so nervous that when my dinner came I could hardly eat. We finished our meal and decided to take a little walk so that we could continue to get to know each other. I remember laughing to myself as we strolled past Matt’s parked car and he asked if I minded waiting while he fixed his crooked parking job (Who does that on a first date?). We walked to a little park close by and sat and talked until it was dark. We said goodnight and went our separate ways, but my mother can account for the fact that for the first time, I returned home from a first date giddy and grinning ear to ear. I knew that there was something special about Matt and over the next few weeks we went on several more dates, with Matt making the long trek down to me each time. After two weeks of dating, with me falling in love hard and fast, we made it official when he asked me to be his girlfriend, and the rest is history.
How Matt Proposed to Christina
from Matt’s perspective
Chrissy has always had such a great relationship with her family that I knew I wanted to have everyone there to celebrate when I popped the question. After almost 4 years of dating, and almost as many years of her waiting for me to propose, I started to plan for the big moment. I decided to propose at Thanksgiving. Her family would all be together in the Outer Banks for a week. In the past, I had tried to convince her of the sheer beauty of cubic zirconia but I had been defeated (haha), so I went to a local jeweler and picked out a ring and diamond that I knew she would love. After a long history of her sister and aunt harassing me about whether I was ever going to propose, I may have accidentally revealed my plans under the influence of several adult beverages one night when we were all out together. I picked a beautiful, though slightly chilly, day that week and crafted an unsuspecting story about wanting to walk down to a nearby dock to take pictures together. I held her hand as we walked, with my other hand awkwardly in my pocket trying to conceal the ring box, and when we got to the dock, I took her hands and told her how much I loved her. I got down on one knee and proposed, and after she fought back some tears, she said yes! On our walk back, we couldn’t stop smiling at each other. Because I spilled the beans to her family earlier, everyone was at the house waiting when we got back from our walk down to the dock. Her sister made sure the champagne was poured and waiting, and it was time to show off the ring and celebrate!
Thank you, Matt and Christina, for having me photograph around the family property!!! It was a beautiful time, and I’m so glad we took a chance with the weather to make these portraits happen. <3 I loved my time getting to know you two and I cannot wait to celebrate with you at your wedding day this fall! YAYYYY!!!! Congrats! XOXO!
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