Images: Kir Tuben
It was a good weekend despite the change in temperatures. I didn’t have a wedding, so we took advantage of the “free” weekend by having some friends over to celebrate Evie’s 3rd Birthday (for like the third time … I know) and a makeshift “housewarming”. Even though we kept it casual, I was EXHAUSTED by 9pm on Saturday and was already drooling by 9:30pm on the couch … I think life, wedding season, and officially hitting my 3rd trimester today is catching up with me. But, we don’t have any time to slow down! There’s a thousand house projects we have on our list, I have 3 weddings to go before baby, and I won’t even share the details of our next nursery design … because as of now it’s completely fictional and the nursery room in our house is covered in boxes/storage items. Stressed? Not at all … (hah, I’ll just keep telling myself that).
Let’s kick off the week with some love and remain hopeful that I can be a better blogger this week! I’ve got Kelly & Ellyar’s awesome JBPC wedding on Saturday, Andy is traveling for work today & tomorrow and then his parents come to down … but yeah, just another normal week for us ;)
Tory and Isaac’s love story begins with another love story–that of their good friends, Jenny and Eric! Tory grew up with Jenny in the Pocono Mountains of Pennsylvania, while Isaac grew up with Eric in West Chester, Ohio. At Ohio State, Jenny and Eric met and fell in love, and then in 2012 got married. By a turn of fate, Tory was asked to be their Maid of Honor, and Isaac, the Best Man. As they walked down the aisle together at their friends’ wedding, Tory felt that fabled ‘lightning strike’ of chemistry between them. Isaac played it cool, but told Jenny he thought Tory was “pretty.” In the fall of 2012, after a double date with Jenny and Eric to see the cheetah cubs at the National Zoo, they started dating seriously.
In 2016, after four years together they began to talk about marriage. Isaac’s grandmother gave him her engagement ring and another heirloom ring, and Tory’s mother offered her engagement ring. They worked with Tory’s family jeweler in Pennsylvania to custom design a ring that incorporated the diamonds from the three rings and symbolized the joining of their two families.
Once she knew the ring was ready, Tory was impatient for the proposal! It came to be mid-December and she thought there would be no proposal that year. However, the weekend before they were to part ways for the holidays, Isaac suggested a trip to ZooLights, the holiday light show at the National Zoo. They had walked through the lights show and were about to leave when Isaac stopped at the Zoo entrance. Tory, feeling cold, urged him to keep walking. She was shocked when he dropped to one knee!
Tory and Isaac decided to take their engagement photos in Rock Creek Park, where they love to spend time hiking on the weekends. While they were nervous to be in front of the camera for the first time, their photographer Kir Tuben immediately put them at ease and they had a lot of fun. During the picnic, Isaac opened a bottle of champagne, which exploded everywhere and left Tory and Isaac soaked! Those “outtakes” ended up being some of their favorite photos from the shoot.
