Downtown Wilmington, North Carolina Engagement Session

I absolutely LOVED strolling around Downtown Wilmington for this beautiful engagement session. Being based in Upstate New York, you might be wondering how I ended up with an engagement session south of the Mason-Dixon line.

When Christie reached out to me about photographing her wedding I was so excited!! Christie and I both attended SUNY Geneseo together (Literally one of my FAVORITE places), and were Sigma Kappa Sorority sisters while we were there!

While catching up, we were talking about how her and her fiance Andrew moved to Raleigh, North Carolina recently. Back in NY, they’re from opposite sides of the state. To make it easier on the families, they decided to compromise and get married smack dab in the middle of NY, where I live! (Hence how I ended up as the photographer.) I knew that my husband and I would be in North Carolina for our vacation in April, so instead of asking them to travel back to NY for their engagement session, I asked if we could meet up down in North Carolina! No surprise, they said YES!

We decided to meet in Downtown Wilmington because it’s such a beautiful place! Christie and Andrew were absolutely adorable together. Their chemistry was undeniable and the session flew by. Scroll to enjoy some of my favorites from the session and to learn more about their love story!

How did you two meet?

Bride-to-be: We first met in 2011 during sophomore year at Geneseo. We lived in Wyoming Hall in the same quad, diagonal from each other. After a couple weeks of living there, our suites became really good friends with each other to the point where we all were hanging out, watching Breaking Bad, and grabbing dinner together most nights.

Groom-to-be: We met the first day of sophomore year as we lived in suites across from each other on the 3rd floor of Wyoming.  Our suites became friendly and it was a weekend ritual to play Mario Kart and hang out in our suite.

Tell us about your first date!

Bride-to-be: We never had a real official “first date” because we had been hanging out with each other so much, so it’s kind of hard to distinguish. But I do remember Andrew asking if I would like to grab a bite to eat with him on our own, and after that we met up for lunch almost every day. We frequented Letch and MJ dining halls and GFR (Geneseo Family Restaurant)!

Groom-to-be: Our first dates were usually meeting up for lunch and getting sushi or taco bell at MJ dining hall.  I’ll tell you my two favorite dates though.

1) Christie visited me in East Hampton the first summer we started dating.  We took a bus into the city and went to Lincoln Center to see a ballet (Romeo and Juliet to be precise).  It was an awesome experience for sure.

2) I saved up some money from working during the second summer we were together and we went to dinner at a super fancy restaurant called “The Palm.”  We went all out and ordered the surf and turf meal and a bottle of champagne.  The meal was insane, my lobster claw was basically the size of my hand.  Everyone around us was in suits and I basically wiped out my savings but it was a great.

Tell us about your first kiss!

Bride-to-be: Our first kiss was not very romantic! Our group of friends had gone out one night off campus and while we were walking back to our dorm rooms, Andrew and I hung back from the group and shared a kiss on the sidewalk outside our building.

Groom-to-be: The first time I officially asked her to be my girlfriend was after the Giants beat the Patriots in the Super Bowl in 2012, so that kiss was pretty special.

Tell us about the proposal!

Bride-to-be: Right before the holidays, I had some time off school and spent about two weeks in Raleigh before returning to Buffalo for Christmas. Since we were spending the holidays apart (again), we decided to celebrate early by having our own Christmas dinner and exchanging gifts. Everything was wrapped under our tree and after opening our gifts, Andrew asked if there were any more to open. I said no, I don’t think so, but he urged me to look under the tree again.

I don’t know how or when he did it, but there was a little box sitting under the tree, wrapped with a bow with my name on it. But the excitement wasn’t immediate because I was still not expecting a ring, I thought it was going to be earrings! So when I finally opened it and saw the ring, I couldn’t believe it. I think I said yes before he even got down on one knee.

Groom-to-be: We exchanged Christmas gifts on December 20th because we were going to be apart for Christmas.  I hid the ring in my office and put my other gift for her under the tree.  After we opened gifts, I snuck into the office and got the ring to put under the tree.  I kept trying to get her to look under the tree but she was insistent that there were no more gifts.  Finally, she got the message and opened it up.  She was super surprised and began crying right away (tears of joy I’m pretty sure haha).  Then we drank some champagne, made popcorn, and watched the Nightmare Before Christmas while texting our friends and family.

Dear Future Spouse

Bride-to-be:

Thanks for being my best friend; the person I always go to with my good news and bad news, and for all the support you’ve given me over the years. I’m so excited I get to go through all the fun experiences of life with you!

Groom-to-be: