I am so in love with this couple and this place! Julie and Matt are sweet as can be and we scheduled their engagement while Matt was home before his deployment at the gorgeous Longwood Gardens in Kennett Square. The entire place was blooming with gorgeous color and florals. And the new Parisian style gardens have finally opened! This day was so incredibly inspiring.
These two have known each other for almost 23 years because they actually grew up next door to each other! Their families are best friends and their mothers had actually plotted to get them together. It’s honestly one of the best stories! I will let Julie tell it:
“After college, Matt joined the army so I didn’t see him as often. When he was deployed in Afghanistan (2014) I had just gotten out of a serious relationship and our moms started plotting to set us up (this is actually serious). We both didn’t think too much of it, since..well…Matt was overseas. I think both of us always had a “what if…” in the back of our minds. When Matt returned from Afghanistan his parents threw him a welcome home party and my family attended. When I walked in, I immediately knew I was in trouble. It had been a while since I had seen Matt, and he looked SO handsome. I started to clam up and for the first time EVER, felt awkward around him. I later learned that he felt the same…as he ran upstairs to put on cologne as soon as he saw me come in! We tried to catch up at the party, but often felt our moms lingering in the background, hoping for a connection to arise. As the holidays approached that year, our families spent more and more time together. Right before NYE, I gathered the courage (ok, maybe I had a couple of drinks to get this courage…) to text Matt and see if he wanted to get together. We went out December 30th, and I invited him to hang out with me and my high school friends for New Years Eve. Again, I didn’t find this out until later…but Matt actually cancelled plans with other friends so that he could see me! We continued to talk and had our first kiss at midnight. As I’m typing this out, I realize that our whole story is so cliche! Ha. But that is really how it happened! We dated secretly for a few months before telling our families, as I was still living in DC and Matt was stationed in North Carolina. We haven’t looked back since that NYE night! We are excited to spend our lives together.”
I mean COME ON!! That story is too amazing. I am so happy for these two and can’t wait to celebrate them!!
[…] and Matt were married this year at the beautiful Greenville Country Club and I photographed their engagement at Longwood Gardens in June of 2017. Then I photographed Erin, Brian and their girls last fall for Christmas cards as […]