Many of you know that Thomas is my second shooter, my best friend, my business partner, my film switcher, my lens swapper, my wedding dress carrier, my sunflare seeker, and my boyfriend. Well, at least he used to be. Now he’s my fiance. 😀 (That’ll take awhile to get used to saying).

After telling so many of your engagement stories, I feel it only seems fair to share ours.

Last Friday, Thomas and I came home from work. I sat down on the floor to play with Oliver and Canon and Thomas started asking me strange questions. They weren’t super strange, but they were about our relationship and deeper than the average “Friday afternoon” conversation. He asked me about letters that we had written to each other over the years and wanted to know where I had kept the ones that he wrote to me. I explained that they were at my cubicle at work. Shortly after that he said, “I’m going to propose to you this weekend, but I need to get those letters. I have a ring in the apartment right now. Do you want to see it?”

I was shocked to say the least. Totally blind sided. Thomas isn’t very good at keeping surprises (ie: he already told me about my only Christmas present) so I had no idea that he had found a ring or asked my parents. Well – he had!

So, perhaps unconventionally, we looked at the ring together and talked about our future as well as all of the events that had lead us to this point. He also explained Sunday’s proposal (told you he wasn’t good at surprises). In a weird way, I really loved having that time to reflect and process all that was about to happen.

The next morning we drove to Gainesville to celebrate his dad’s birthday and watch the UF football game. I was filled with excitement, like we had this huge secret that I wasn’t allowed to announce yet. We watched the game, enjoyed a birthday dinner, and spent the evening at a friend’s house (shout out to Olivia for always letting us crash at your place!).

The next morning, we woke up and both knew today was the day. It was the day we were getting engaged! We got ready, said our goodbyes to Olivia, and headed to get breakfast. We got some oatmeal (classic) and headed to the picnic table where we first met. Thomas pulled out all of the cards and letters that we had written to each other over the past three years. I was shocked to see how many of them there were! We read through them in (mostly) chronological order. It was really fun to re-live the past years and even read about inside jokes that neither of us remembered any more. I also want to say that I’m so glad I knew what was going on. It really allowed me to enjoy the process of reading these letters (which took more than two and a half hours) and live in the moment. If I hadn’t known what was going on I would have been so confused and  most likely pretty difficult (“Thomas, can’t we just eat on the road? I need to get home and edit photos….!”).

After we finished reading the letters, Thomas got down on one knee and proposed.

It was a really sweet, wonderful day. Of course, we stopped an alum and asked them to take a few photos. Can’t say we’ll be asking them to join us in our future endeavors, but I think they captured a hint of sunflare. She’s got some potential… 😉

Photo credit to Shannon of  Three Fish Fiesta, Shannon Lee Miller, and Danielle Poff Photography – thank you for helping us document our story throughout the years!