Those first initial inquiry emails can be so important to getting to know each other and Sam’s didn’t disappoint. She gave me their love story before I even introduced myself and I LOVED reading about them and how they fell in love. It made it even more exciting for me when they selected me as their wedding photographer. We met at Quiet Waters Park in Annapolis for their Engagement Portraits – talk about a beautiful park! Anyways, I’ll leave the rest of the blog up to Sam and allow her to share their story with you. ” Joseph and I met in the eighth grade and became best friends. We remained close as we went into high school. Joseph and I had a couple romantic attempts over our high school years, but I was always nervous about the potential for a break up and me losing my best friend so it never made it very far. He was definitely in love with me back then even if he didn’t want to admit it. You could’ve asked anyone and they could have told you. We even made a pact that if neither of us were married by 30 we would get married and have a vacation home in California. I remember one time early on in high school one of our favorite teachers said to us on the last day, “make sure you two invite me to your wedding”. We laughed so hard because we were dating other people at the time and thought he was crazy, but like I said, everyone else saw it even if we didn’t. So finally senior year of high school neither of us had prom dates so he asked me to go with him. Just 12 days later on May 22, 2012 he asked me to be his girlfriend. Side note- the number 22 is our lucky number! It’s my birthday, it was his sports number his entire life, and of course the day we started dating (which he planned). If there had been a 22nd we could get married on we would’ve, but we settled for 11-11 which is as close to a 22 as we can get! So after high school I went to UMBC and he went to AACC. He graduated with an associates in business management and is now halfway through a HVAC apprenticeship. After my two years at UMBC, I continued on there for nursing school and just graduated with my bachelor’s back in May. We went to Disney World in June to celebrate my graduation and he proposed right in front of the castle! I made this super cute video if you’d like to check it out (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Ye3GVcXEHY&feature=youtu.be).”