It’s incredibly exciting and inspiring for me to explore and photograph a location I’ve never experienced before, so I was thrilled when Emily & Austin decided to do their Engagement session in Austin’s hometown of Carrollton, GA! We met on the gorgeous Wednesday before Thanksgiving and were blessed with gorgeous fall color! We first explored the area along the GreenBelt (which was absolutely stunning) and ended with sunset photos along Lake Carroll! Emily and Austin are so natural together, and we enjoyed laughing (a lot), chatting & exploring! I loved my time with them & can’t wait for their wedding at Callanwolde Fine Arts Center next July! As always, I’m sharing a bit of their story along with some of my favorite from the session below! Enjoy!
In your own words, tell me about how you met & fell in love – “We met our first year at Georgia Tech. Our roommates, Shannon + Ryan–who are getting married three weeks after us!–introduced us to each other. During our first year of core classes and social events, we became fast, inseparable friends. In that time, we learned that we have a whole lot of fun together and we make a good team–especially when classes (and life!) got tough. We started dating during the summer leading into our third year. We fell in love that summer/fall, and then continued to fall in love even through on-and-off seasons of long distance in the four years following.”
Austin, what is it about Emily that you love the most? – “This is a tough one! The girl’s pretty dang awesome. All she wants to do is make everyone happy and give back to everyone. She cares for anyone who needs help, and she’s got me caring for things I never knew about. She makes me laugh harder than I ever have, and she laughs at herself even harder–which I also love. But my favorite thing about her is that she challenges me in every way. I’m a better person when I’m with her… I’m calmer and not as quick to get angry at the little things. She’s extremely level headed, but still so silly and loving. I just love this girl.”
Emily, what is it about Austin that you love the most? – “Hands down, my favorite things about Austin are his commitment and his authentic joy. I see commitment in the way he treats both his family and mine, and especially in how he treats me! He is constantly looking out for me, protecting me, taking care of me, and looking for ways to make my life better and to make me laugh. I know that Austin will be the very best protector and provider for me and our family for the rest of our lives. Secondly, his authentic joy. Austin really makes me feel beautiful and loved. But what’s even more incredible is how he does that to everyone he meets. He has such an ease about him when he meets new people, from the grocery store cashier to the CEO of his company. He takes a genuine interest in people–in who they are and in how they’re doing that day. He makes them feel loved and valuable and just noticed by someone. It is just the coolest thing to witness and learn from.”
About the Proposal – “I was flying up to Chicago to help Austin move for his next rotation of work. We agreed to spend Saturday in the park downtown and exploring Chicago. I, per the usual, fell asleep in the car, which gave Austin the opportunity to switch the GPS to take us to his proposal spot. When we arrived at the park, Austin continued walking past it. I found out later that he was trying to get back to a particular spot on the shore — our favorite spot where we’d hung out before! When I questioned him about where we were headed, Austin decided to go with the flow and follow me to keep me from catching onto anything. Lucky for both of us, I picked out a beautiful grassy spot with a great view of the skyline.” [continued below]
About the Proposal [continued] – “As we got there, Austin hugged me and started to say some nice things that I don’t remember! He knelt down to “get a beer” from his backpack, I–still THOROUGHLY confused–tried to squat down with him… to help him or something?! It wasn’t until he pulled the ring box out of his bag and turned back to me (I think starting with something like “no, you stay up there!”) that I really understood what he was doing. And even then, once he’d asked me to marry him, all I could do was cry for a few–several–many–minutes until Austin finally asked, “so are you going to say ‘yes?!'” A random passerby happened to snag some proposal photos for us, for which we are forever grateful. We had the best day EVER just running around Chicago, FaceTiming absolutely everyone, sipping champagne at Cindy’s rooftop bar, going out for the best farm to table meal in the cutest little restaurant… Just totally off the cuff doing whatever we wanted and being completely over the moon with joy!”
Wasn’t Emily & Austin’s story sweet?! I just love these two – it’s easy to see that they are each others Best Friend, and I can’t wait for the wedding next summer!
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