This is by far the weirdest and most exciting blog I have yet to write here at Mabyn.com. If you follow me on Facebook or Instagram you may already know the news, but you make not know the story…

Over the weekend, the most amazing man I know asked me to marry him! What? What! WHAT?! Even though he & I have been talking about this for awhile, it still feels like a dream. Like I imagined it all…and then I look down & see the most perfect ring on my finger!

I’ve been waiting to introduce you until things were more official and now here we are! This is about as official as you can get right? So here we go!

This is Daniel, my dream boat of a fiancé!
Daniel & I met on one of those new fangled online dating sites.

I had spent the past year going on dates & meeting people. As lovely as most of the guys were that I met, something in me just couldn’t dive into a relationship with any of them. I was frustrated & wedding season was on the horizon so, I decided to start canceling my accounts. Daniel was the last of the gents to contact me with a simple & sweet email. I decided that if It didn’t work out with him, then I was done for awhile…guess God saved the best for last huh?

Thus far, Daniel was the only guy didn’t rush into meeting in person. We started by just emailing back & forth. I found that refreshing & enjoyed getting to know him behind the computer screen for a little while. One of my biggest complaints about the online dating scene is that you’re put under a lot of pressure from first contact. It’s hard to get to know someone as a friend first because you’re under the assumption that you’re going to be in a relationship. It’s easy to mix signals & get your heart into something way faster than I was ready for. So, when Daniel & I agreed our first date would be “romance free” I sighed in relief. The pressure was off!

Maybe it was the lack of pressure, maybe it was his kind eyes, maybe it was his love for Christ, maybe it was how he crushed me in mini golf, probably it was all of that & more that made that “first date” the best I’d had yet. We spent 8 hours together with out even blinking! At the end of the night I was so nervous that I had scared him off. During our conversations, I was very blunt & honest with what I was looking for in a partner and though I wasn’t getting any red flags, I wasn’t sure if he wanted to see me again. So at the end of the night after a 10 – 20 second awkward pause I leaned in with a goofy grin and said “Soooooo…Do you want to do this again?” To my extreme relief & joy he said “sure!”

That was the start of our friendship!

 It quickly became clear that he had a big heart for Jesus, people, & seeing the two connect. We could also write novels about everything. Oh and did I mention he makes me laugh and laugh and laugh? Yeah all giant thumbs up in my book. After several weeks of getting to know each other better in person it became pretty clear that this was moving in the right direction. We decided to stay on this run away train and see where it would take us.

(Our first selfie)

One of my favorite outings to date, was our Memorial Day trip to the Appalachian mountains where we drove up the Blue Ridge Parkway just in awe of how beautiful it was. It was that day that we decided to make things official, and by “official” I mean post pictures on Facebook as a couple….and pretty much broke my life for the next few days as notifications, comments, and text messages came flooding in to my world!

I think it was that weekend that caused us to seriously start talking about marriage. We both agreed that was the whole purpose of us dating. So far we hadn’t had any red flags and we were quickly becoming extremely addicted to the other. We both had common goals, dreams, and desires, our friendship was only getting stronger and quite honestly I couldn’t imagine my life with out him anymore.

(The weekend before Daniel went on his missions trip to the Dominican and I cried the entire drive home. It was then I realized how deep my feelings really were. )

(Fourth of July weekend where I met his extended family & poned them in “horse.” )

The week after Fourth of July Daniel asked me if I wanted to go ring shopping. I immediately perked up and said “reaaaaaally?” This was so fast, yet right, & surreal all at the same time. I had a week or so of travel and then we set the shopping date for the weekend I returned.

(Live action Clue night…We played Professor Plumb & Ms. White. Our matching pose was not pre planned!)

You’d think that being a wedding photographer and shooting many an engagement ring  that I would know exactly the kind of ring I wanted.

WRONG!

I went in thinking I had an idea, but the whole process was overwhelming. Although it became pretty clear what I DIDN’T want. So I tried on ring after ring, style after style, cut after cut nothing completely screamed “MABYN” to me. However, I did find 3 rings that I thought may do the trick. Two of them needed to be customized & ordered and one surprising choice could be purchased right then and there. Daniel was there the entire time observing me and secretly plotting behind the scenes….

That was just over a week ago.

This weekend I had plans for my NY crew to come visit and meet Daniel. I honestly didn’t think anything was going to happen while they were here. Too much crazy for an engagement, thats for sure! Little did I know….

Remember that whole “plotting behind the scenes” thing? Yeah, Daniel had a MASTER plan going with this crew right here! A secret Facebook group was formed, friends were emailed, parents were called, friends lied through the skin of their teeth in order to create the most epic of engagements! I have to give a HUGE shout of of love to my friends. They banded together and lied, lied, LIED, so I could have the proposal of my dreams! They played their parts so well and I was completely oblivious (well…Lo’s shady photo shoot almost tipped me off 😉 )!

Saturday came about and all of my friends & I were just relaxing. I intentionally didn’t plan a lot while they were here just so we could enjoy each others company that is so very rare. Daniel was  pretty quiet all day, but when he’s around a lot of people that can be normal so I didn’t think too much of it. Since several of my friends are photogs as well, we had an impromptu photo shoot planned that evening. So when friends picked out my outfit, asked to borrow lenses, ect…again I just rolled with it.

No good story comes with out a plot twist, so enter ME, deciding last minute that I needed to go to the store to get a few things for dinner. Apparently this threatened to throw everything into chaos! “OH NO! Mabyn & Daniel left! What are we to do?!” Hey…I didn’t know any better!

It all worked out in the end tho, they got me out on that “photo shoot” where Lawrence quickly became shady and ran away. I shrugged it off and went on a much needed walk with my Darling.

These walks were part of our normal routine. The Cre8 property has this great dirt road that loops around most of the property. We love walking it and just talking about everything so again, gullible me, just played along and went on a beautiful walk with my boy….

When suddenly who should appear on the horizon but Ariana & Brian Watts of Silver Feather Studios! I pointed and said “Hey, I know those guys!” and my immediate next thought was “Are they shooting an engagement session here? I thought they had a wedding today?” Only to have the pieces click into place 10 seconds later. They were there for MY engagement! I turned quickly to Daniel, saw a big grin on his face, and said something to the extent of “No! Your’e not!” and plunged my face into his shoulder as the tears started to flow!

I couldn’t stop them from falling, it was like a river of joy was leaking out of my face!

Then Daniel dropped to his knee & said some of the most beautiful things that I’ve ever heard….which I don’t remember….

And pulled out the most perfect ring…the one ring to rule them all that was ready to buy there in the store and  I was SO GLAD that he picked that one! It was PERFECT!

I also found out later that while we were at that jewelry shop he had put a down payment on it…sneaky sneakerson!

Daniel asked me to marry him & since I couldn’t form coherent words at that point I nodded my “YES!”
Then he attempted to slip the ring on my finger…where it promptly got stuck on my swollen knuckle…after a little shimmying tho, it fit perfectly!

I couldn’t stand it any longer! I just had to hug him!

I also found out after the fact that he not only got Ari & Brian to do photo/video but they had Daniel hooked up to a mic the whole time. So all those beautiful words that I don’t remember will be recorded forever! Yay! Daniel gets major points for that one!

I’m still in awe at how he did all of that just for me! I can’t help but thank God that he gave me Daniel to stand by my side for the rest of my life!

(This is Daniel’s sneaky “Winning” face)

After the proposal, all four of us walked back to the house where my crazy group of friends had turned the living room into an engagement party!

(Next day engagement lunch)

The weekend was AMAZING and I still haven’t processed all of the amazing moments that happened.

Daniel is so incredible and I’m just so stinkin’ happy to FINALLY introduce him to you! Expect to see a lot more of him in the future. He’ll be coming to some photo shoots near you! YAY!

(First engaged selfie!)

I have a feeling that over the next few months my Mabloggyn posts will have a lot to do with wedding planning! Even though I’ve shot over 120 weddings now, i’ve never planned one! So this is a new adventure in itself that I’ll definitely be keeping you updated on.

Thank you to everyone who has wished us well & shared their excitement & love with us! We love YOU!

XOXOXO,
Mabyn