Chris & Mona’s Washington DC Rooftop & Neighborhood Engagement

A little something for you all this Labor Day, while I get ready to head back to DC! I hope you all had a super relaxing Labor Day weekend and it was full of awesome BBQs and college football wins!

Today’s Washington, DC engagement session comes to us from Angel Kidwell Photography – Angel actually told me this was their FIRST submission to a blog! I am honored to be your first ;) It wasn’t hard to accept after seeing these beautiful, unique DC engagement pictures AND read Mona & Chris’ DC love story (it involves a shared love of Jurassic Park! yes!). Plus, Mona is a Nittany Lion (We Are!) so naturally, I had some bias on that one. Us PSU alums are really something special ;)

Happy Labor Day!

Chris & Mona’s Casual, Alternative Washington DC Engagement

About Mona

I was born in Egypt, raised mostly in Pennsylvania and now live in Washington DC, where I met Chris in 2011. After four years at Penn State, I moved to DC to continue my career in marketing. Along the way I have made some wonderful friends and had some amazing experiences since moving to DC. One of them, of course, being meeting Chris.

About Chris

My whole family is from Massachusetts, our family goes way back there. I was born in Virginia and started school there and then we moved back up to Massachusetts. We spent 1996 in Kazakhstan, which I’m pretty sure gave me my travel bug! After Kazakhstan, we moved back to Virginia where I finished high school and went to college. I am so happy to have met Mona, with whom I can travel the world and share in all sorts of new experiences (even if it is not traveling, but trying a new recipe!)

How they met

After many years of dating we both decided to try online dating(OkCupid). Luckily Chris emailed me! And after a few emails back and forth (where I guess we each decided that the other person sounded like a nice, normal, non-crazy human being) we met for our first date at the Columbia Heights neighborhood restaurant, Meridian Pint.

We hit it off right away. We already knew we had a lot in common from our conversations online: we both love the movie Jurassic Park (especially the raptors – they really steal the show), both are close with our families, and both love to travel and collect fun souvenirs from our trips (although Chris definitely wins on most number of countries visited!).

Click inside for the rest of Chris & Mona’s awesome DC engagement AND proposal story. Plus a look at Mona’s unique, Tsavorite ring from Kenya!!

The proposal story:

Chris was very sneaky in obtaining a beautiful Tsavorite ring from Kenya while on a work trip there a few months prior to our vacation in Costa Rica in November last year. Apparently he told both of our families and his friends when he returned from Kenya with the ring, and somehow everyone kept the secret (good job guys!).

After a long hike through a national park in Costa Rica, I was ready to spend the rest of the evening in bed watching Spanish music videos and Friends reruns in our room. Chris suggested that before I collapsed into bed that we should take a sunset photo together first. This wasn’t suspicious to me because Chris always travels with his camera gear since he’s very into photography.

He set up his camera on a tripod and had me pose alone so he could focus the camera at first, then he hit the timer button and walked toward me with the ring and got down on one knee. He said some lovely things which included a proposal, but I don’t remember exactly because it was all a blur even while it was happening! But I do remember saying yes :)

And then I got to decide where to go for our celebratory dinner. So we put on our pajamas, ate oreos, and watched Spanish music videos and Friends reruns! Best celebration dinner ever. (Don’t worry, we did go out for a nice dinner in town the very next night!)

Congratulations Chris & Mona! Cannot wait to see your wedding. Thank you for sharing your love story with us. A special thanks again to Angel Kidwell Photography for sharing this DC engagement with us!