becky + thomas | a lush, romantic longwood gardens engagement
“Cats or dogs?” …jumped out to Thomas as he was reading Becky’s Hinge profile. “Cats, for sure” he confidently replied and that was the beginning of their connection. While working through a few hiccups in planning their first date (specifically that Thomas was about to embark on a solo trip to Europe the following week!), they ended up at the Food Market in Hampden, roaming the Avenue after brunch, perusing antique shops… “We kissed in the basement of one of the shops, assuming privacy. When we walked back up the stairs, we noticed the large CCTV monitors right next to the cash register, live-streaming a clear view of the scene of the crime!”
“We had talked about getting engaged pretty early on in our relationship, probably within the first few months (I’m a just girl who always has a 5-10 year plan A, B, and C…haha). Timeline wise, we knew we wanted it to happen after moving and settling in Philly. A few months after moving to Philly, Thomas set up an appointment at a ring shop that had a location a few blocks from us and I got to try on a bunch of different styles to figure out what type of ring I wanted.
Fast forward to Thanksgiving 2022 when I was over at Thomas’ family’s house in Maryland. His parents and sisters kept making proposal jokes/nudges, which of course Thomas loved! On Black Friday, we both started looking up different companies on our phones. Thomas found the exact ring I wanted and sent me a link. I said the ring was perfect, and left it at that. I found out way later that he bought the ring that night, haha.”
“The next weekend, I unfortunately had a pretty bad cold but wanted to set up some Christmas decorations in our apartment, which were stored at my parents’ house in New Jersey. My dad, being truly the best dad in the world, drove down to Philly just to drop off our decorations (and didn’t come up to see me to avoid getting him sick). Thomas knew this was the perfect time to tell my dad that he bought a ring. In true efficient dad fashion, my dad double parked on our busy street, turned on his hazards, and quickly got our decorations out of his car. I’m pretty sure my dad was going back to the driver’s seat to drive away when Thomas goes, “oh uh…. so … I bought a ring!” A few seconds go by (as my dad is processing) and he gets so excited and says “welcome to the family!” and other excited remarks. Little did Thomas realize – our windows are actually quite permeable to sound!! I was lying on the couch and heard basically the whole encounter. I gasped when he said he bought a ring, and closed my ears after my dad said, “welcome to the family!” because I didn’t want to invade their personal conversation. I still remember the look on Thomas’s face when he came back to our apartment, and I said, “so… our windows are kinda leaky haha…”
To throw me off, Thomas kept asking, “is THIS the outfit you want to get engaged in?” when we would go on our daily walks with me in baggy sweats. He also kept saying, “I can’t help but notice that your nails aren’t painted,” to which I responded that I still had a few days to prepare. Thomas then made reservations for dinner on Wednesday at a nice restaurant about a block away from our apartment that I had been wanting to try for a while. I wore a simple sweater, jeans, zero makeup, and still hadn’t done my nails, since I was still sure the proposal was happening on Friday. We had a great dinner and as we were leaving, Thomas asked if I wanted to go to the bathroom, to which I responded that I would just go at home since we were only a block away. Then, he said, “we might not be going home…” and immediately I knew that it was happening that night. The next hour or so is kind of blurry from all the emotions haha. I remember getting extremely nervous/excited as we were walking towards Rittenhouse Square (which was 2 blocks away from the restaurant) and saying, “SHOW ME YOUR POCKETS” because I am terrible at handling surprises. He was a trooper and kind of obliged, and did a quick twirl to appease me but I saw the ring box in his pocket and told him so, so now we both knew it was going to happen that night and probably in the park. We silently did a lap in the park, which is truly an idyllic background with a huge Christmas tree and holiday lights everywhere. I think we were moving at 1 mile per hour and when we finished the lap, we both looked at each other and said, “let’s do another lap!”
We did a few more laps, and then sat on a bench. I told him, “you know I’m going to say yes, right???” to which Thomas laughed and said “I know, but it’s still kind of scary.” We did another lap, when I saw an ornament that had fallen off the Christmas tree. I went to go pick it up and put it back on the tree, and when I turned around, Thomas was down on one knee and said, “sweet Becky, will you marry me?” We both burst into tears and I cried “yes!!!”. The next moments were blurry but we were crying, laughing, hugging, and so excited. And of course, the ring was perfect. We went to a cocktail bar to celebrate and got to celebrate our engagement just between us that night. The next day, we told family and close friends, and on Friday, a few friends from Baltimore came up to celebrate with us and take some celebratory photos!”
I couldn’t be more excited for you two if I tried!!
I’m so glad Thomas answered your cat/dog question correctly and I’m so glad our paths first crossed back at Lily + Andy’s wedding years ago… your engagement photos at Longwood Gardens were incredible and I can only imagine how magical your wedding at The Belvedere is going to be, especially because you used to live there. 🙂
You’ve been planning and waiting so patiently for this day, I’m honored to be able to document and celebrate alongside you both and meet all of your close friends and families!
