New York, New York
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A gorgeous spring evening in the park for Nicole and Billy! These two booked a vintage taxi from Film Cars for their session — one of my absolute favorite additions to Central Park engagements! I always say, if you want a classic cab in your photos, it’s better to book one than try to chase down taxis in the wild. After getting some beautiful shots with the car near Tavern on the Green, we headed into Central Park to Bethesda Terrace and Fountain, and Bow Bridge!
These two are the absolute sweetest, and met on Hinge in January of 2022. As Nicole tells it, “Our first date was at The Back Room, a speakeasy in the Lower East Side. We definitely both felt something on the first date — we just had so much in common! We both were looking for some serious and our intentions were very clear up front while we were dating. It’s so cliché, but it really felt like we were two puzzles pieces meant to be together.”
“Our official anniversary date is actually Valentine’s Day. Billy took me on a date to fancy steakhouse in the city. He showed up in this fancy outfit and a bouquet of flowers. Even though we went on this fancy dinner date on Valentine’s Day, after dinner we went to this half empty Irish bar around the corner. We were drinking two Stella’s and that’s where he asked me to be his girlfriend. The story seems simple, but I love the way it worked out!”
Fast forward to October of 2023! “Billy actually planned to propose for the previous three weekends, but NYC and NJ was rained out almost every weekend in September so he kept having to change plans! The day before, he told me he planned a date for the next day since it was the first nice weekend in a while. He said he made dinner reservations on the Upper West Side and he wanted to walk through Central Park to get there. It was so far out of our normal date routines that it was pretty obvious that he was going to propose!”
“When we discussed what our future proposal would look like, I told him that I wanted a private moment, but someone to photograph a little bit of it for the memories. Since the plans changed so many times, he lost his first and second photographer. He last minute hired someone with an iPhone on Task Rabbit to take a few photos. We’re walking through Central Park and the Task Rabbit was very lost, so Billy was on his phone the whole time trying to get him to the spot while trying to keep me distracted. He took us to Shakespeare Garden in Central Park where he finally met up with the Tasker, and that’s when he finally got down on one knee. It was a beautiful moment between me, Billy, and a random Task Rabbit! It wasn’t how he imagined the day going, but I appreciate the effort he took to try to get me what I asked for. It was perfectly imperfect and a great story I’ll have to tell.”
Nicole’s pear shaped ring with a thin diamond band and a small halo around the main stone is absolutely gorgeous. “It’s exactly what I wanted! I gave Billy tons of photos as inspiration. We didn’t go pick it out together, but his cousin works at a jeweler, so it was a small family affair when he went to pick it out.”
Together these two currently live on the Upper East Side in Manhattan and love watching true crime documentaries, and have recently gotten very into reality TV (Survivor, Big Brother, Amazing Race, The Circle, etc.). They love to play video games together as well, and Mario Kart is one of their favorites. And, most importantly, they love spending time with their two cats, Stella (named after the beer they had when Billy asked Nicole to his girlfriend) and Noodle (they just love noodles)! I’m so excited to celebrate these two next July at Cork Factory Hotel in Lancaster, PA!
