Crisp Sewickley Engagement Session: Melissa & Christopher

Colorful leaves, plaid shirts, tights and sweater weather, boots, pumpkin spice lattes, oh my goodness do I love fall.  And I love these engagement photos from Lindsey Zern Photography even more.  Take all of my favorite things about this season, add in an adorable couple clearly in love, throw in a Pittsburgh bridge for good measure, and you have Melissa and Christopher’s adorable e-session.  The couple posed for some quintessential fall photos in a leaf-covered field before heading to the streets of Sewickley to take in some of their favorite spots, including their own front porch.  I can’t handle the cuteness.  I bet you won’t be able to either.

PS – Melissa is the girl boss behind Sweet Water Decor (and she’s totally killing it BTW)!  When you’re done swooning over her engagement photos with her sweetie, head over to her site and shop yourself some happy 🙂

From the bride…

When and how did you two meet?
We met on Match.com in October 2012 and went on our first date on Wednesday November 13, 2012.  We had our first date at Cadillac Ranch in Robinson and talked the night away.  We definitely had sparks the first time we met.  He gave me a kiss goodnight and I knew it wasn’t the last time I was going to see him.  We hung out that weekend, and by Tuesday we were “official”!

Juicy details on the proposal, please!  Where, when, how?
We went to look for rings in February 2014.  He had been following me on Pinterest since the beginning of our relationship and he knew exactly what style of ring I liked.  We picked out the center diamond together and he did the rest!

To begin our proposal story, I have to start at the week before we went on vacation.  We were at Christopher’s brother’s wedding.  They called for all of the girls to come out on the dance floor to catch the bouquet.  I lined up front and center.  As his brother’s wife threw the bouquet, it came right into my arms!  I was so excited and ran over to Christopher and showed him.  I told him, “You HAVE to catch the garter!”  He sauntered on up to the plate.  The garter was thrown and it came right in front of Christopher.  The guy beside him went to reach for it and Christopher stepped on it, and grabbed it before the other guy had a chance.  He held it up high and we laughed at how crazy it was that we both caught the bouquet and the garter.  He put it on me and his family and friends had a great time seeing us as the “next” ones to be married!

Fast forward only one week later…We went on vacation to Savannah, GA and Hilton Head Island, SC.  We were in HHI, having an amazing day – we got up really early and went to the beach, swam in the pools, and even took a nap in the hammocks on the grounds.  We went back and got ready and went out to dinner.  Storms were on the horizon, but as we were finishing dinner, Christopher was still adamant that we walk along the beach at sunset.  Christopher pre-packed a backpack full of water, wine, and a blanket and slung it over his shoulders.  We started to walk down when we saw a beautiful, sun-filled opening in the clouds.  He reached down and took my hand and we started walking in the sand.  We talked about love and our kids someday and we stopped to admire the sunset.  When we stopped, Christopher held me in his arms and kissed me.  The ocean waves were a few feet away as he held me in his arms and told me of his love for me, of how he didn’t know what he wanted to do or where he’d want to live but the one thing he did know is that he wanted to be with me forever.  Then he bent down, pulled out the ring from the backpack, and asked me to marry him!  I put my hands to my face in excitement and nodded and said “Yes!”  I sat on his bent knee and kissed him and said “Yes!” again.  We hugged and kissed and while I was still sitting on his knee, he took the ring from the box and put it on my finger.  We got up and were so happy and in shock, but we had to find someone to take our picture!  A mother, daughter, and their dog were walking along the beach, so we told them we had just gotten engaged and we asked them to take our photo.  We didn’t tell anyone for a good two hours as we enjoyed our engagement, just the two of us knowing.  We went back to our hotel room and called our parents and friends and they were very excited for us!  Hilton Head will always hold special memories for us.

Describe the engagement shoot.
I always wanted to get married in the fall, but I couldn’t wait a year to be with the love of my life.  So, we had the next best thing – engagement photos in the fall!  We had our photo shoot in our favorite town and where we live – Sewickley.  Our photographer, Lindsey, has such an eye for color and detail.  She met us in the Sewickley Heights and we drove around until we found beautiful spots to take our photos.  It was freezing outside but we had an great time and got some AMAZING shots.  We love that the Sewickley Heights is so beautiful and gives us a country scape and the Village, where we always walk in the summers with our Starbucks in hand, gives us the small town city scape.  We took photos at our favorite spots, even inside Starbucks.  Lindsey captured our love and that was our vision.  Just like in Christopher’s engagement speech…no matter where we are, we are together and in love.  And what better place to capture our love than the city we will be beginning our lives and growing our home together?!

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