On this Throwback Thursday I’m excited to share Carter and Richard’s Barnegat Lighthouse engagement session. This coming Monday, these two will be celebrating one year since they were engaged and next month they’ll be celebrating their marriage! It’s such a fun month for Carter and Richard as they look forward to their wedding day.
Carter and Richard found us thanks to our dear friends over at Bogath Weddings and Events and are working with our associate photographer, Jocelyn. It was actually back in October when Jocelyn captured their Barnegat Lighthouse engagement and I loved the combination of fall and beach! I had every intention of blogging this session back in November after we delivered the engagement gallery to Carter and Richard but boy did I overestimate what I’d be able to do during my third trimester of pregnancy! Luckily, I am finally getting around to catching up on sharing engagement sessions just in time for these two to tie the knot in exactly 44 days =)
This sweet couple has an amazing story! They met because they were ice-dancing partners! Their story is like something out of a movie! Richard came over to America from England to have tryouts with twelve different girls and he ended up picking Carter! They skated together for about a year before they started dating and continued skating with each other for another four years. I think you’re going to love reading more of their love story below – it’s sprinkled between some of my very favorite images from their session. Enjoy!
Barnegat Lighthouse Engagement
“I don’t think we really have a first date. We eventually just started hanging out more with each other until dating became inevitable. But if we had to pick one, it was getting dinner at Iron Hill and watching the Fourth of July fireworks with each other one summer. We had already established a really strong friendship and shared so many experiences with each other, but I can remember feeling super nervous and awkwardly talking too much!”
“When we stopped skating with each other and became just a ‘regular’ couple, the transition was very difficult. We both just experienced a huge loss in our lives and now had to figure out how to move forwards. After a couple months of transitioning had passed, we ended up taking some time apart which allowed us to each to go through some personal growth. It did not take us long to figure out that this was NOT how we wanted to move forwards, as we both felt like we had lost not only a significant other, but also our best friend. We both feel that taking that time apart made us realize just how important we were to each other and that we never wanted to lose our best friend again.”
The proposal
“I had organized a beach day trip to visit my parents at our beach house in Harvey Cedars as they were up for the weekend. We were originally just planning on going up ourselves, but I last minute invited some of my friends to come for the day. Richard says I planned the day perfectly! We spent all day relaxing and hanging out with our friends and my parents on the beach. Back at the house in the evening, my friend Katie managed to get me out on the dock to take random pictures of me doing handstands once sunset started appearing. She called Richard out to take a picture of us together, and as we were posing for a picture he got down on one knee and proposed to me during the most beautiful sunset with my friends and parents with us to celebrate. After I asked him if he was serious TWICE, I squealed yes and rushed us both off the dock because I didn’t want to risk losing the ring in the bay! Later I realized that it was all planned, and my parents and friends were in on the plan the whole day.”
“The ring is most definitely my dream ring. I actually thought he was joking the whole time he was proposing until he opened up the box and I saw the ring. It is a solitaire circle cut diamond with a thin band that has small diamonds going around the band. I had shown Richard pictures of rings that I liked in the past, and he worked with a friend who works at a jewelers to create my ring. Richard picked the diamond because the blemish within the diamond is a feather, and he thought that was ‘sweet’.”
Richard: “When I get her to really laugh (or if I tickle her enough), she has this cackle that I love to hear!”
Carter: “One of the things I love about Richard is his ability to make me laugh or smile even when I’m in my worst mood!”
