Ashley & Brian’s Casual Alexandria Virginia Engagement Pictures

Images: Stephen Gosling Photography

It’s a Federal Holiday for me today, so I am off to spend the morning with my sister & Evie, getting some indoor playtime in. I wanted to do a service event with her for MLK day, but it’s impossible to find 1-off projects, especially ones that would let me bring a 20 month old! Maybe next year (or if you know of any, please let me know!). I’m planning on blogging for most the week, but it’s going to be a weird one as we head out of town Thursday evening for a weekend with family. I will try and keep the week/blog as positive as possible, with as many messages and reminders of love as I possibly can. I hope you’ll join me in that venture. Happy Monday & sending you all vibes of strength, hope, & love on a day meant to remember someone that embodied all of those things.

So let’s officially start the week with love ~ Ashley & Brian’s engagement session is on the blog.

How they met:

Ashley decided to move from Columbus, OH to San Diego, CA in April of 2014 for a new adventure and change of pace… it was only going to be temporary. While living with a friend, she started going to a local church and noticed Brian on Sunday mornings. Two different friends asked Ashley what she thought of Brian, not knowing that she had secretly been eyeing him for weeks. One of those same friends mentioned to Brian that she thought Ashley and Brian would “get along” and Brian (having secretly noticed Ashley as well, unbeknownst to her) decided to introduce himself in mid July 2014. They soon started dating after that and what was originally meant to be temporary became a permanent adventure.

The Proposal story:

On Brian’s birthday, June 22, 2015 Ashley had the novel idea to throw a surprise party on the beach for Brian with a bunch of their friends. Little did she know that one of those friends had tipped Brian off about the surprise, when they found out he was going to propose. Ashley drove Brian blindfolded to the beach while all the while Brian had the engagement ring hidden in his coat pocket. When they got to the beach, Ashley told Brian to leave his coat in the car, he definitely didn’t need it at 4 o’clock in the afternoon on the beach. He insisted that he bring it. When they got there, Ashley took the blindfold off and yelled surprise!

Brian nodded and started greeting everyone (secretly telling all of their friends to circle up because he was about to propose). Brian began a speech in front of their friends saying how blessed he was but something was missing and it “wasn’t quite perfect.” Ashley panicked a bit thinking she had not thrown the perfect birthday party surprise and pulled out his gift, which was a brand new iPad. He opened it and said “well I wasn’t expecting that!” He then got down on one knee and said “Ashley, I love you, will you marry me and make this moment perfect?” And no, we hadn’t planned to coordinate our outfits that day.