Engagement session GIVEAWAY….

MEET THE COUPLES:

Wow this has been so fun reading everyone’s stories of falling in love! I have narrowed it down to TEN…. here are the details on how to vote:

THERE ARE TWO WAYS TO VOTE!

You can read about them here on the blog, after doing so, you can vote by leaving ONE comment with the name of the couple (if there are multiple comments from the same person, that couple will be disqualified, let’s keep it fair peeps!)
To vote a second time, head on over to my facebook page and find the photo album called “engagement session giveaway contest” and “like” the couples photo who you want to win. To be able to “like” their photo, you must first “like” my page.
The couple with the most comments and “likes” will win a free engagement session and CD of their edited and ready to print images! (a $425 value) Yay!
Voting ends on February 23rd, 2011 at 9 PM
GOOD LUCK!

ALLIE & BROOKS

Brooks and I went to high school together but never officially met, much to my chagrin. He was on the basketball and baseball team and, as far as I was concerned, he was WAY out of my league. I always thought he was beautiful. After high school we both went our separate ways and both ended up getting married….and divorced. After a couple failed engagements we both decided to give up on dating for awhile. Then, on a whim, we both got on a social networking site (on the same night) and came across each others profile. I was the first to “cyber stalk” Brooks. I knew who he was immediately and I remembered loving him in high school, I wondered why such an amazing guy was still on the market. That same night Brooks saw that I had been looking at his profile so he looked at mine and decided to contact me immediately. That was December 10. Our first date was December 11, and we have been together ever since, except for 3 days. We know it seems fast, but it feels like we’ve known each other for our whole life. It’s the feeling you get when you meet someone and you feel like you already know them. Love shouldn’t be hard. It should feel as natural as breathing. Life is hard enough as it is, shouldn’t you be with someone who makes life easier??? We are best friends. We fit together perfectly. Our families both want us to get married. There are no red flags. We were absolutely made for each other. Our love feels so right that we see no reason to postpone it just because the world may say it’s too soon. We’ve both been through really hard things, but we feel like all of our experiences have led us to each other and prepared us for each other. There is a song by Collin Raye called “All My Roads” that perfectly illustrates how we feel…Every line reminds me of exactly why I’ve been where I have and makes me so thankful that I have finally found the part of me that’s been missing. It also reminds me of what is really important. We don’t have a lot of money, or financial support from my family. My parents refinanced their house to pay for my first wedding and after medical expenses for my dad they can’t afford to do it again. This was something I was aware of before I ever talked to Brooks and it was a hard thing for me to come to terms with, until I fell in love with him. I don’t care about any of that anymore. All I want is to be his wife. I want to plan my marriage, and my life with him, not my wedding.
However, the thing I regret most about my wedding was that I never had amazing pictures. I didn’t even have okay pictures. All I want is to remember the best night of my life for the rest of my life. I want to be able to look back and remember exactly how I felt, not feel regret for having skimped.

DANIELLE & MIKE

Danielle has been my best friend in all the world for 11 years. I’ve watched her go through heart breaks, disappointments and jerks. At her sisters wedding, Danielle pulled a charm out of the cake. It read, “Love will find you.” And it did. Several months later she had found the greatest love of her life.
Mike and Danielle were both born and raised in Flagstaff, AZ. They knew of each other through a high school youth group. Years later they bumped into each other and exchanged numbers. From that day on they were pretty much inseparable. Their first kiss was at the top of the San Francisco Peaks, during a moonlit hike.
The reason they are such a great couple is because they both have magnetic personalities. Danielle has always been the life of the party and Mike has a group of guy friends that he’s had since elementary school. Everywhere they go they make friends. People want to be around them. I can’t think of a more fun and active couple. They have done everything from hiking the Grand Canyon to snow shoeing to surfing to night time relay races. Some of their traditions include New Years Eve snowboarding trips, the Imogene Pass run and setting off a huge fireworks display every 4th of July for the town in Minnesota where Mike’s mom lives.
It has been 5 years since they started dating. It’s been a little bittersweet for Danielle watching friend after friend get married and have babies. Heck, she’s been a bridesmaid in 7, 8 or maybe more weddings. She caught the bouquet at my wedding. All she’s wanted is to start a family of her own. Mike’s taken a tremendous amount of heat about when he would finally break down and pop the question. Well after a lot of thought and planning he finally asked Danielle to marry him at the top of the San Francisco Peaks (where they shared their first kiss) on January 15, 2011. They deserve an extraordinary celebration.

ANITA & BRYCE

For some it might be easy to just get married and enjoy a happily ever after. But for Bryce and i it didn’t feel like a fairy tale for a long time.
Sophmore year of high school i walked into a biology class that i didn’t think i would ever care about or remember. Their was this guy i was introduced to by a friend, one that i could care less about. Slowly we started spending more time together in class and became friends. We had been paired up for a presentation on a birth defect called lobster claw. We now feel like we owe everything to that presentation. He was too shy to make the first move so i decided to be brave and ask him to a dorky high school dance. of course he said yes and through high school we dated and started to learn what love can do to a heart. Our senior year he lost one of his best friends in a car accident and a few months later his grandfather he was really close to. things feel apart for us and we ended it with an ugly fight. After spending time apart i never thought i would look back. I decided to take my life in a direction to never have to remember what made my heart shatter. A year latter he bought my favorite movie on my birthday and left it at my house, knowing there was no chance i would speak to him. I knew then it wasn’t all for nothing and maybe being friends is something i could handle. i knew he needed someone to count on after everything he was dealing with. We started spending time together and i quickly found my heart right where i left it. with him. Only having him with me for a short time i knew i would eventually have to say my goodbye when he left to serve a mission for the lds church. It was worth every moment i spent wondering if things would work out and every tear wondering if i could ever truly fall in love again. I get one of the greatest christmas presents this year. He’ll be back in my arms and able to take me to the temple to be married for time and all eternity. I’m lucky to say i get to marry my first true love, soul mate and high school sweetheart.
Not everyone gets a fairytale ending but i truly feel like a princess.

ALEXA & BRIAN

Please meet us: I’m Lex. He’s Brian. We’re in love. We met August 21 at the pool. Our electricity had gone out for the day while a friend and I were in Salt Lake. When we got back, it was pretty hot in the apartment, so we went to the pool to cool down. There we met some good lookin’ men who were at the grill cookin’. One of which was Brian. We talked for four and a half hours. Pretty sure I fell in love with his blue eyes then.
He’s from New York. He has a cute NY accent and says things like seeeer-up, potata, care-a-mel, and pa-jaw-mas. Sometimes I like to mock him, but only because I think its cute.
I love cheesecake and country music. He hates both. He loves food, probably more than I do. He also knows how to cook, amazingly well, which is probably why I make him cook for me almost everyday since the first day I met him.
We became fast friends. September 16th we went on our first date: Miniature golf (due to the fact that I had bragged about my “amazing skills” earlier that week, and no, I did not prove myself well), Olive garden, and a picnic dessert while star gazing. He held my hand. We like to sing to songs on the radio. He lets me choose the station, unless it’s country of course. We’ll wear color coordinating outfits to church on Sunday accidentally. He laughs at my jokes, even when they’re really stupid, and we eat ice cream together right out of the carton. We have water fights every time we wash the dishes. Sometimes he finishes my sentences. He brings me daisies when the sky is gray. I take pictures. He plays guitar. Now, we’re best friends. When he smiles, I smile. We’re sealing the deal July 1st and couldn’t be any happier

ASHLEE & RYAN

Ryan and Ashlee have been together for 2 years now. They’ve been thru a lot together during these two years!! Their love for one another has proven to only grow stronger as time goes by. Ashlee has waited a long time for this perfect man to come along and he has dreamed of her his whole life, even calling his future wife by name as a child, “Ashlee from the south.” Ashlee was born to be a mother and the perfect wife and best friend to Ryan. She is the kindest, sweetest, loving, most unselfish person i’ve ever known. Ryan is the luckiest man in the world. I’m sure that their future babies are waiting in heaven full of excitement to be born to such a couple!!!!

MOLLY & AUSTIN

I met the love of my life, Austin Seawright, in May 2010. I was working at Cracker Barrel as a waitress. Austin and his friend, Jake, were selling door-to-door for their window washing business. After mentioning how much he loved Cracker Barrel’s food, Austin realized Jake had never been. They made a goal to sell to at least 3 houses, then they could reward themselves with lunch. After selling well over the amount they’d hoped for, off to Cracker Barrel they went! They were having such a great day that when Jake dared Austin to leave his number, he did it! The note said, “Molly you’re a sweatheart. Call me. Austin” (and he left me his number, too) I sent him a text the next day and started getting to know each other. After all the flirting, hanging out, a falling out period and getting back together, the rest is history. Austin worked in Wyoming for 3 months and right before he left, he asked me to be his girlfriend. I knew it was serious when he did that. We started talking about marriage over the phone while he was gone. He returned home in October. I knew this was real love. It wasn’t until my family was in Utah for Christmas that he asked my dad for permission and popped the question – on Christmas Eve 🙂 We’re now happier than can be and are planning on a June wedding. All we need is the perfect photographer!

JESSICA & JUSTIN

I am originally from Virginia, but 2007 I moved to Utah to go to school at Utah State. In my church ward my second counselor in the bishopric was awesome. He would invite me over to spend time with his family, It was so nice because you can get so homesick, I felt like it was my second home. During that time they had a son serving a mission in Mexico. I was dating someone else from school and things were great. Justin came home from his mission and we became the best of buddies. He was attractive to me right off the start but i was dating someone and he had a girl who had written him most of his mission. Summer came and I moved back to Virginia to work, I decided not to return to Utah State due to financial reasons, but my boyfriend and i decided to try long distance. We would each fly out when we could. One trip my boyfriend decided he wanted to go our separate ways. I was crushed, feeling like I had invested so much, it was hard for me. During my time home I secretly developed a crush on Justin but with me being in Virginia and him in Utah I just never could see how it would work. I continued to date off and on people here and Justin started dating a girl who looked like she was the one he was going to marry. But everytime Justin would talk to me about her, I always wanted to scream break up with her! His family and I could see that there was chemistry between us and that we were a perfect fit. They broke up sometime after that but Justin and I weren’t anything yet. I could see that he had feelings for me that were more than just friends, and so did I but I knew the timing wasn’t right. This past summer I went out to visit my aunt and Justin insisted that he see me, it was perfect! I knew that moment when I saw him that he was the one for me, I can’t imagine eternity with anyone else. We are doing long distance and it’s not fun, but we spend lots of time on skype and over the phone and i have been lucky that i can fly to Utah often. We plan to get married this summer. 🙂
Thats our story, and its still being written but its my perfect fairytale!

STEPHANIE & NICK

The story of Nick & Stephanie is one of pure destiny. She– a freshman, determined not to date an RM. He– a year off his mission, vowed to never woo a freshman. The moment they met was something you only hear about in Mormon Mythology lectures. They were in an Institute of Religion class and the instructor told them to draw a picture of their perfect families. They did. The day being an idle Tuesday in October, Nick felt oddly empowered to reach for the stars. In an attempt to skillfully break the ice he leaned over, made a smouldering face, and asked Stephanie to share her family picture with him. She did, and lo and behold what happened next was nothing short fairytale-esque. They soon both realized that they had drawn the exact same families. Ages, genders, where they were living, everything. Needless to say, things became a little more awkward than they should have been during a “when we first met” scene. What this outrageously adorable couple grew into, however, is as they say, history.

MEAGAN & JUSTIN

After dating for about a month, Justin and I drove out to a nearby lake and sat on a bench with a blanket wrapped around us and tried to make conversation and talk about us! The wind was HOWLING as it came from out of the canyon behind us… And I get cold really quickly, so we hopped back in his jeep and went for a drive! Eventually we found a little plot of open field near a church and stopped there. We sat underneath a tree and talked for awhile with the blanket around us and then he asked me to dance! We played some cute songs from some music I had with me and slowly danced underneath the tree, and that was the first time he kissed me!
About 4 months later, Justin went home for a few days and came back up on Saturday night for a date! The weather had been REALLY nice lately and he wanted to go to our parks, it’s been months since we’ve been back! He was so excited to see me when he came to pick me up! I always love how happy and enthusiastic he got about things so I just thought seeing me was what made him so happy!
We drove down to the lake and sat on our bench again… I actually got a little frustrated and in a bad mood! I don’t even remember why! But he said all the right things and started reminding me of all the sweet things we do for each other and how wonderful he thinks I am! He is always so good at making me smile! Once I had cheered up again we headed out to our park, he could not stop staring and smiling at me on the whole ride over! I still just brushed it off as nothing because I assumed he didn’t have an ‘extra’ reason to be so excited.
Once we got back to our park, he slipped his ipod into his pocket and we danced under the same tree from the few months before… he had a playlist of all the songs we love and had danced to before and he continued to tell me how much he loved me. I figured something a little fishy was going on but I had no idea what! After a few songs, I noticed he stuck his hand in his pocket and quickly put it behind my back… I was definitely confused at that point! He then backed away a little and got down on one knee, slid the ring onto my finger and asked me to marry him! I was so surprised I didn’t say anything back for a few seconds! But then I caught my breath and started to laugh and smile and said yes!

SABLE & JIM

I met Jim as an undergraduate in Illinois. After I graduated, I spent a year teaching in China and then came to NAU for graduate school. He was two school years younger than me, so our relationship endured two years of a long distance relationship before he graduated, got a job in Winslow, AZ, and moved her to be with me. He was offered a higher paying job in Illinois, but had to settle for a job that can barely support him and pay off his student loans. Strangely enough, he is the one who wants the big full wedding experience, and I would love to provide that for him. As a grad student, I can’t spend tons of money on engagement photos, but I would love to have one moment for my wonderful fiancée to experience the wedding process without worrying about our budget.

**engagement session must take place in Salt Lake City, Utah, OR Flagstaff AZ.

NOW, head on over to my facebook page and vote a second time….the couple will thank you! 🙂