Capitol Romance: Brittany & Anthony’s Backyard, Casual Engagement Session

Monday is rough. Especially when it’s raining (a double sucker punch, if you will). But Brittany & Anthony’s backyard Virginia engagement session from Holly Cromer Photography, is sure to make you smile and forget ALL about that crappy rainy Monday weather (and commute!).

I love so much about this engagement session – the couple is so laid back and effortlessly cool. I love that they had their engagement at their home, inside and in their backyard, with their dogs joining it. Everything about this session just seems to be so “them” – and I don’t even know them!!

Oh and just wait until you read all the beautiful details of their love story. A special thanks again to Holly Cromer for submitting!

Brittany & Anthony’s Backyard, Casual Virginia Engagement Session

How they met (from Brittany):

Like many young couples, Anthony and I met in college; at a party no less. There were, of course, plenty of other people to meet and mingle with. But for some reason we just kept running into each other throughout the house and engaging in conversations about music, future world travel, and drinking games. In hindsight, that magnetic reaction we felt that brought us together throughout the night was love.

It was our junior year and we had a class together with a maniacally intellectual professor who at times was a personal hero, and at other times was a personal pain-in-the-butt. So I sometimes found my attention wandering. Before I had actually met Anthony I had noticed a tattoo of a silhouette of a cow under a green leafy tree on his arm, contrasting boldly with a hot pink shirt he’d been wearing. Class after class I would stare at it, the most beautiful tattoo I’d ever seen.

Anthony and I spent a long time admiring each other, going to the same parties but hesitant to talk to one another. It’s the only relationship where I’ve fallen in love before even getting to know the person.”

How they met (from Anthony):

“As cliché as it sounds, meeting Brittany started by seeing her across a crowded room. This was no classy bar with candles and piano music, however, this was the epitome of college house parties; drowning in noise, profanity, and general uncleanliness. Through the bodies and sounds I found myself fixating on this small, thickly-banged vixen. I recognized her from a shared class but we’d never actually interacted before.

By the kindness of the stars in the skies she saw fit to exchange fluttering eyes with me, and I eventually took the opportunity to try talking with her. Miraculously she proved to be funny, intelligent, involved, and willing to keep talking to me despite my firm belief that she was entirely out of my league. Not wanting to seem too over-eager I eventually came up with an excuse to go elsewhere and we parted ways – but a house party can be a small place, especially at a small school in a small town. As the night continued we managed to bump into one another again and again, at times exchanging glances, smiles, sometimes entire conversations.

I finally found a way to hold her company in a comfortably nonaggressive way under the guise of teaching her a drinking game about a river. We ended up playing through the entire desk, possibly more than once, talking about everything under and above the sun. By the end of the night we were no longer strangers to one another – we parted ways with a hope and understanding that our next class together might prove exponentially more thrilling.

For days and weeks after, my mind raced through the first moments of seeing her across the room, the electricity sparking from her eyes into my mind; all I could think was “what I wouldn’t give for the chance to spend more time with her”. I still think that.”

^Can we all just say, “awwwwwwwwwwwww” together?!!?

Click inside for the rest of Brittany & Anthony’s laid back, casual engagement feature and the proposal story!

The proposal story:

“How do you top your own history? In the time Brittany and I had shared a life together we’d built up a treasure trove of sacred memories and events; everything from the most beautiful of first dates (the kind that come once in a lifetime) to moving continents away from each other before choosing to reunite. Our history together was made up of such monumental emotional events that when the time came to “pop the question” all I could do was look back at those seemingly un-top-able memories and gulp.

One thing I did have was the ring – sort of. My father passed down his own wedding band (he’d switched to wearing his own father’s), however it was twice the size of Brittany’s thumb, so I planned to re-make it into a beautiful ring worthy of her hand. I devised a plan and a design, but I held off on actually getting the ring re-made – Brittany and I had seen eye-to-eye on so much in our lives together, but there are times when I know my sense of aesthetic clashed with her, and since it would be her wearing it, I thought it might be best if she had a say as well.

With the ring (kind of), I still hadn’t solved the dilemma of making the most romantic experience ever to end all romantic experiences. This was a rather larger hurdle. I wracked my brain for months, spying, conniving, thinking, dreaming. The best ideas were impossible, the possible ideas weren’t the best. It became torturous, un-do-able, I started worrying I would never find the magical way to ask, and because of that I actually began to wonder if she might not say yes.

It wasn’t until I was once again a continent removed from Brittany (this time I was just on a trip) that I had a breakthrough. I had befriended another recently wed individual and vented my vexations with them. What they gave me was the best advice imaginable: stop trying to plan and make the ultra-romance happen, and just be ready for the right opportunity. With that in mind I started gearing back in my planning and started looking at our lives day by day. The time would come, and I would be as ready as I could be.

That time came about 4 months later. Brittany and I had taken a trip to DC with a group of friends to a see a concert. Six people, one hotel room – I was not under the impression this would provide the ultimate opportunity. That night, as we were surrounded by the truly unique joy and energy that only a world famous South African hip-hop group could provide, I looked down at this woman who had filled my life with music and happiness and excitement, I bent to her ear and I asked her to marry me. It seemed like the right time. I didn’t have the ring with me, of course, but I assured here I had one (sort of). She looked up at me with the same excited, wild eyes I’ve seen in every beautiful memory of her. And she said yes. Without hesitation.”

Seriously?! How cute are these too!? I cannot get enough!

Congratulations Brittany & Anthony! Thank you so much for sharing your beautiful love story and proposal story with us! A special thanks again to Holly Cromer Photography for sharing her images.