The
Alisandra Photography Blog

** How We Met**

**How We Started Dating**

On to the great question”How did he propose?” I ask every one of my couples this because it really tells you something about them! It shares a ton of about what kinds of things they like, how they love, and what they hold dear. I love the mixture of answers I get – scavenger hunt, proposed at dinner, gathered the family for a weekend at the beach, or… just randomly dropped on one knee when the moment felt right. Today, I’ll tell our story.

Chad and I were each nearing transitions. I was finishing up photography school – and starting to build a photography business! Chad was graduating from JMU and interviewing for jobs. It’s funny because I don’t remember feeling anxious about that time in our life, but I think we were.

We both knew that we were marriable. I know that’s not a word. But I can’t say that either of us ever felt like, “He’s the one!” I knew from early on that I could marry Chad, but always was hesitant because I was waiting for the doves, or some sort of sign. Well, for some people, the doves never come. Just be prepared for that! It doesn’t take anything away from the romance or relationship unless you let it. And we didn’t let it. We talked about marriage. We talked about our parents relationships and things we liked or didn’t like, we shared our expectations and of course, how many kids we wanted. Stuff like that. It wasn’t like we didn’t have a plan, but we also weren’t 100 percent sure what our plan was.

The February before we both graduated, I was attended a youth retreat with my home church. It was held over Valentines Day, so I asked Chad if we could celebrate a few weeks later on the 27th, and go visit his parents in Virginia Beach. He said that would work. Fast forward a few weeks, and I wake up the morning of our own Valentines Day. Chad made me waffles and said he had the entire day planned! YAY! We painted pottery, bought a box of Krispy Kreme [ate a few, gave a few away], and headed out to the beach. Problem was, it was really windy and cold. So instead, we went to  a little place on the river. A boardwalk leading to an overlook of the Lynnhaven River. We walked out and Chad said that he’d written me a poem! This wasn’t really a surpirse. He likes to write and does so quite often. We sat down, and he started to read. The poem was our story. Written in third person – the boy did this, the girl did that. It ended with the boy going to talk to the girl’s father… and that’s when I realized that I was getting proposed to. I said yes, didn’t cry, but we hugged for a while, and I called my dad after about 30 minutes of soaking it all in.

Chad and I relied on God’s faithfulness to us to have gotten us to that point. We weren’t ever sure if we were going in the right direction, but we were very sure that God would redirect us if we were wrong. One of the requirements from my dad was that one of us have a job – so we started praying Chad would have a job within a month. Three weeks later, Chad was hired by BB&T. And we set a date!

…The night we got engaged!