britton + andrew | a cute, nature-filled engagement at jerusalem mill
These high school sweethearts have a once-in-a-lifetime love that began the summer after their junior year while at Young Life Camp in VA… the way they look at each other is everything. Britton and Andrew, you are an inspiration and so much fun to photograph!! Thank you for being you… totally and completely in love and not afraid to show it.
Britton grew up on a farm with a beautiful stone house and we tried to find a location that could recreate it for these photos. I love that it worked out so perfectly: we had the stone ruins all to ourselves and playing in a river has never been so much fun!
“When you have a camp crush, it’s tradition to give them a spoon at the dining hall to show that you like them. He gave me a spoon and I gave him a fork in return because I didn’t want to upset the other Andrew and leave him in the dust. We didn’t have phones at camp, but he had me write my number on his arm the last day as the busses were leaving. We started hanging out as friends and had planned to do so for a couple months, but that only lasted one month because we really started falling for each other :). The rest is history!”
Here’s how the proposal unfolded, in Andrew’s words:
”I wanted the proposal to be meaningful and not something that could apply to every other couple. I had been thinking about doing it in Hunt Valley shopping center for awhile since that was where we had our first date. Hunt Valley isn’t the most scenic spot in the world, but I knew that at Christmas time there was a 50 ft tree that they put up right in the center.
I decided to fly her best friend up from South Carolina unbeknownst to her, to surprise her during the engagement. I asked her to go out to brunch with me after church on a Sunday morning that we were sitting at home and she started crying. After calming her down, we went to brunch and I had her completely convinced that nothing was going on because I was completely calm (meanwhile freaking out on the inside towards the end of the brunch, but I’m a good actor so she had no idea). We started walking back to the car and as we got to the tree her best friend popped out and surprised her. She started crying immediately and went to go hug her friend. Her friend pulled out an ornament from a bag (that mine and Britton’s mom had made together) that said “Will You Marry Me?” She turned around and I got down on one knee. I said a few prepared things and then asked her to marry me. I went to put the ring on her finger and found out that I had been holding the ring box upside down the entire time… Pretty ridiculous. But she still said yes!”
