Ashley and John are engaged and are set to marry one another later this year! John is in the military and when his leave date got pushed up for his first duty station, we planned a winter engagement session. Little did we know, the date we originally selected would be start of what many predicted as “Snowmageddon.” With a winter snow storm ramping up and extremely cold temperatures forecasted, we were forced to move the session date back a few days. Ashley and John’s session ended up being very nice for early February.
I met the two love birds in downtown Jefferson City where they came dressed to impress. Ashley and John were giddy as ever as I snapped their engagement portraits. Documenting love is a simple task when the love shared between a couple is so evident. These two make the cutest pair! I enjoyed getting to know them more as a couple as we ventured around town. We took advantage of our time together and hit a lot of locations. From downtown, to the river access, and finally ending the session at Binder, Ashley and John knocked this out of the park. I’m so looking forward to their wedding day later this year!
How They Met
Ashley and John met in 2014 at the Drury Plaza Hotel in Cape Girardeau, Missouri. It has since been torn down, but Ashley and John are fond of all the memories they have together at the hotel. Ashley and John were both staff for Teen Traffic Safety and Leadership Conference, then called Team Spirit (now TRACTION).
Eventually their connection would lead to a relationship. A couple days before Ashely John started officially dating, they attended John’s senior prom in Leopold, Missouri! Before their first official date, Ashley went and watched John’s baseball game. Followed by dinner at the local Mexican Restaurant (still to this day Mexican restaurants are their favorite places to eat together.) The two would finished the night with a movie at John’s house! Ashley remembers being so nervous! She was finally dating the guy she had been crushing on for a couple of years, but was excited to see what the future would hold!
How He Asked
While in San Antonio over New Years with some of John’s closest friends, Ashley and John had the best evening out! They went to the River Walk (their favorite place in San Antonio) that day, enjoyed a beer at a German brewery on the River Walk, and then went to the Alamo. After the Alamo, they all went back to their AirBnb to get ready for the evening. That evening, they ate at the BEST restaurant in San Antonio, Josephine Street, went to the Pearl Brewery district which was beautifully decorated for Christmas, and headed back to the AirBnb to continue their evening full of drinking and games.
When it got close to midnight, Ashley and John watched the ball drop on TV, which is when John said he was going to propose, but everyone went running outside when they heard fireworks. After many minutes of watching the fireworks that lit up the San Antonio sky, John’s friends, Megan and Lucus, opened their bottle of champagne that was a wedding gift labeled “first new year’s”. After that , John (while behind Ashley, where she couldn’t see) said, “Speaking of marriage, I think it’s our turn”. When Ashley turned around, John was on his knee! Ashley doesn’t remember much past that point, but the beautiful view of the fireworks and the cheers of his friends made the moment so special! Ashley was clueless! She thought he might do it while in San Antonio, but after it didn’t happen on the River Walk, Ashley was certain that she was wrong and it wasn’t happening on that trip.
