Tuesday 19 June 2012

Real Life Engagements

We also have a Real Life Engagements section to the blog, if you would like to submit your proposal story or engagement shoot photos please follow the usual submission method. Again, to get started I will document my own engagement, what a distant thing that is, all the way back in 2005! The pictures are from our engagement shoot, taken by John Steele who was our student photographer at our wedding, working alongside our professional photographer. The engagement shoot photos were taken at Newcastle Keep.




Well, I had been buying bridal magazines from 6 months into our relationship, I had know I would marry Matt the second I saw him. However, when we discussed engagement Matt said he wanted get engaged, but wanted us to have a house first. The traditional part of me wanted a ring on my finger before I moved in with him, not a wedding ring, but at least an engagement ring.  We even bought the ring early, after about 8 months together, but Matt refused to propose, saying he would do it when he was ready. So while my hopes were high on our first anniversary of getting together in January 2005 nothing of note happened.




Therefore I wasn't particularly expecting anything on valentine's day. In the morning Matt presented me with a very cute Build-a-Bear-Workshop valentines bear then dropped me off at university. I had a pretty average day, until my crit (Fine Art student) which didn't go as well as I had hoped. Everything was made better though when Matt picked me up directly from the crit with a huge bunch of red roses. He had been going to take me to a restaurant, but as his sister was bringing home her new boyfriend it was decided we'd go to his parent's and have takeaway with them.




Then at around 10pm a rather nervous Matt decided he wanted to go for a walk. (A walk? At 10pm? In the drizzle?) I was, of course, a little suspicious but with my rather quirky and slightly eccentric boyfriend I still didn't want to get my hopes up too much. So off we went, driving down to the beach at South Shields and going for a star lit stroll along the sands.

This, with the sound of the sea and the stars overhead was where my perfect boyfriend dropped to one knee and announced he loved me, and would I marry him! Of course I said yes, and just over a year after first meeting Matt I became his fiancee.

Perhaps his proposal wasn't the most extravagant, it certainly wasn't the most public, but it was romantic. His nervousness was endearing, the location was stunningly romantic in it's own quite and moonlit way. I wouldn't change my proposal for anything. It was personal; in Matt's how town and on a beach where I had many happy childhood memories and for that reason it was truly perfect for us.




Angela McGurk
Graphic Embers

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