Spring Lake, New Jersey
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A rare aesthetic (that’s what the kids are saying these days, right?), aka me in front of the camera! Oh my gosh, where to even begin. If you’re new around here, I’m going to give a little background on our story since I always do when I post my engaged couples!
Matt and I have been together since February of 2016 (although *officially* since July 8th, 2016) and we got engaged in the midst of the Pandemic in July of 2020. We actually met thanks to Bumble, but I never messaged him on the app. However, I did have my Instagram handle in my bio. When I didn’t message him despite him continually extending our match, he finally gave me a follow on Instagram.
For some reason I almost never check who follows me, but somehow I did notice his follow. I looked at his account, thought “ohhh, he’s cute” and gave him a follow back. Well, a few days later he “slid into the DMs” so they say. He messaged me and we had a brief conversation on Instagram. If I’m being honest, I’ve scrolled back to re-read it and boy is it cringey. We’re both trying to sound cool (which we’re not) but thankfully we started texting pretty soon after to spare us the pain of re-reading all early conversations.
We went on a few dates and then started hanging out pretty regularly. Matt lived in Queens and I lived two rivers away in Hoboken, so we joked we were long distance since it took almost two hours to get to where we each lived. On our first trip together to Newport, RI Matt told me he loved me for the first time (and of course, I said it back). Despite being “long distance” we made it work and finally moved in together to an apartment in Jersey City in May of 2018, and adopted our first furbaby (Macie an adorable but crazy Beagle mix) in March of 2019.
Our proposal story needs a whole blog post of its own, but basically Matt planned an absolutely epic proposal in Newport on a sailboat, and I have NO idea. Like many, I thought the things he was doing leading up to our trip were a little bit suspicious, but I didn’t think too much of it and he totally caught me off guard when he popped the question at the front of the sailboat in the middle of Newport Harbor.
Being in the industry, I knew I was going to have very specific ideas when it came to our wedding. Obviously my first thought was: photographer. Photos are definitely the most important aspect to me, and my immediate first thought was my photography idol, Lauren Fair. I reached out to her before we even had a date in mind, and we had such a wonderful conversation with her. She truly is the best!
Although our wedding plans will be saved for another post, our engagement session was such an amazing experience. We scheduled it on a Tuesday in April, hoping and praying that 1) we’d get good weather, and 2) the cherry blossoms would still be on the trees. Although I wasn’t entirely married to needing cherry blossoms in our photos, I knew they would make for a gorgeous setting.
Spring Lake is the beach that I would go to growing up, so it was an obvious choice for location. We met up with Lauren on the day of our session and although the weather was absolutely beautiful… boy, was it windy. I stepped out of the car and instantly my hair became a rat’s nest and I probably flashed everyone in the tristate area.
But Lauren, ever the pro, kept us calm and proceeded to capture the most stunning photos that we will cherish forever. I truly can’t even believe that the people in these photos are us. I was pretty nervous going into the session, not knowing if my photography experience would potentially hinder my ability to take direction, but it ended up being SO much fun. I literally didn’t want it to end. You truly can’t tell but it was INSANELY windy, and also pretty much freezing on the beach. However, when I look at these photos all I see are love, joy, and amazing memories.
I am SO excited for Lauren to shoot our wedding, and am forever grateful to her for capturing this special time in our lives. A huge thank you as well to the amazingly talented ladies who made me beautiful, KC Glamour (makeup) and Manes by Mia (hair).
Photos by Lauren Fair Photography
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Vendors:
Photography: Lauren Fair
Makeup: KC Glamour
Hair: Manes By Mia
Dress: Altar’d State
