Mary Olive & Eric’s Sweet DC Winter Engagements Pictures at Eastern Market

Images: Meghan Rose Photography

Guys this weather is killing me. Also this cold that Evie has (and subsequently now I do too), but that’s another story… I realllllly cannot stand this warm weather in December! It’s so not right, and it’s really keeping me from getting in the holiday spirit! Please tell me I am not alone here!! So to help, I am sharing Mary & Eric’s super sweet DC engagement pictures from earlier this year, you know, when winter actually meant cold temps and SNOW. I miss my boots, sweaters, and scarves guys. Really I do. Happy Monday.

From their photographer:

They were natural, relaxed….most importantly, they were happy. I loved that they weren’t afraid to be silly with each other in front of me, that I could just give them suggestions that they would then take and make their own. They fell into poses comfortably and, despite the frigid temperatures, made it look cozy and inviting. They are the type of people you just want to be around!

How We Met (in Mary Olive’s words):

We were both working as AmeriCorps members with DC Habitat for Humanity and living in a house with 4 other coworkers. Half-way through our year of service, we started spending more and more time together. After working side-by-side 5 days a week, we would casually find ourselves spending weekends together as well. We never left the house at the same time, but somehow always ended up in the same spot. One spring night we found ourselves out at a bar talking with some Australian paratroopers. Neither one of us is exactly sure how it happened, but we spent the whole night holding hands across the table.

Uncertain of what this meant, each sought the advice of friends. Anne, Eric’s friend since age 2, told him that it meant MO was into him and he should make a move. Sarah Rodriguez, MO’s friend from high school, told her, “You’re not in middle school, grow up and kiss him!” After each pondered the advice of friends, we finally kissed at a Memorial Day barbecue in 2009. Six years later – and two years after Eric proposed – we decided to get married in the city where our relationship began.

Here is our proposal story (in Eric’s words):

After four years of dating, three apartments, and two cities together, Eric decided it was (finally) time to propose. He was spending the summer in Washington, DC, where the couple met, while Mary Olive continued nursing school in North Carolina. She was planning a trip up to visit for their anniversary on Memorial Day weekend and Eric knew this was the perfect opportunity to pop the question. After a quick call to his future mother-in-law, Eric discovered that there was a family ring that he could use to propose. The ring was originally Mary Olive’s great-great-grandmothers. After the ring was taken in to be cleaned, it was put in the mail to Washington, DC. Dinner reservations were made. Eric thought he was good to go.

Unfortunately, the postal service had other plans. Rather than make it out for delivery before the holiday weekend, the ring never left the sorting room of the Watergate building post office. (Because something always goes wrong at the Watergate…) Eric panicked. After talking to Mary Olive’s mother, who was concerned about her ability to keep the proposal a secret any longer, he decided he still needed to propose that night. As a nod to their history working for Habitat for Humanity, he went to the hardware store for metal nut. If you squinted, it sort of looked like a ring, right? That night, after dinner, Eric proposed at Mary Olive’s favorite spot in the city – along the National Mall, between the illuminated Capitol building and Washington Monument. Mary Olive was so surprised and overwhelmed, that she did not even need to squint to see the engagement ring in the nut.