Beautiful Engagement Shoot at the Library of Congress (D.C.)
As told by Marquel Yvette Photography LLC: Christina and Joshua met through a mutual friend one night while out in D.C. From there, he asked her to be his date to the Marine Corps Ball and the rest is history! They’ve been together for almost three years through deployments, long-distance, grad school and so much more. He proposed where they had one of their first dates at the National Harbor in Maryland.
Location: Washington, DC, US
Event Date: June 23, 2019
Museum: U. S. Library of Congress
Photographer: Marquel Yvette Photography LLC
Q1: Let’s start at the beginning. How did you two first meet?
A1: Josh and I met through mutual friends out in D.C. one night during the Summer of 2016. He is a U.S. Marine and was stationed in Quantico, VA at the time, and I was in D.C. doing an internship on Capitol Hill, right before I started grad school. One of our mutual friends and a group invited me out with them one night, and Josh was one of the people that came with the group. We struck up a conversation at the bar, talked for a bit, and I thought he was super nice and funny but thought nothing of it. A few days later I asked my friend to bring him to my housewarming party because I realized I hadn’t gotten his number, and I wanted to see him again, but I didn’t want him to think I was weird by asking his friend for his number myself – (which was probably even weirder LOL). But they came to my housewarming party, and mid-way through the night, I actually ended up leaving my own party for the rest of the night to go on a date with him LOL, and the rest is history. We never stopped talking after that!
Q2: What makes your relationship special? Tell us some things that you both value in your time together. (example: pushing each other to new limits, love to travel, huge comic book fans, foodies, etc.) What makes your relationship unique?
A2: We have restless souls and a deep love for travel, adventure and exploring the unknown. My career as a U.S. Diplomat for the Department of State and Josh’s career as a Marine initially brought us close because Josh has been stationed all over the world for work and I love to travel as well. We are currently posted in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil for the next two years for my first Diplomatic tour. We are also avid foodies, we love to cook together and we also love being active/hiking in every country we live in/visit.
Q3: How did you know your partner was the one? When did you first know this in your relationship? (these may often be the same moment, but aren’t always)
A3: Christina – I knew that Josh was the one when despite him going on many deployments for work, right after we started talking, we still kept in touch and would talk for hours, whenever we could. No matter how much we talked, it never seemed like enough time and even when we were talking about nothing, we just loved being on the phone together. Then, when he got back from one of his work trips, he asked me to be his date to the annual Marine Corps Ball, and all I can remember is him treating me like a queen that whole night. From that point on, I knew I wanted to be his date, to everything, forever.
Josh – I can actually tell you the exact moment I knew Christina was the one. We had only been talking for a few weeks, and I was on my way from North Carolina back to Quantico. The drive was about six hours and I chose to leave late that night, but Christina and I were on the phone talking about everything under the sun and she stayed up talking to me for the entire six-hour ride to make sure I made it back home safe, despite having to be up early for class in the morning. Up until that point no one had seemed to care so much about my well-being, so I knew after that night that I was going to do my best to make her as happy as humanly possible.
Q4: Give us all the details about the proposal. How and where did it happen? Was it a surprise? What was the planning process?
A4: After 2 years of dating long-distance, Josh planned the most BEAUTIFUL proposal. It turned out to be an entire week-long, little did I know and end at the National Harbor in Fort Washington, MD, not far from where I grew up, and where we went one of our first dates. The week leading up to the proposal he started by coming into town to surprise me for what I thought was a celebration of our 2-year anniversary. Josh had this weeklong itinerary of things panned ranging from a day at the spa, getting massages and my nails done to dinner at the place where he took me to dinner when he asked me to be his girlfriend. Then, on the last night, he took me out again and proposed in the spot where we took one of our first pictures together, right in front of the Capitol Wheel. He then rented out one of my favorite restaurants and had a surprise dinner planned that he invited all of our best friends and close family too, to help us celebrate. He even had a videographer hiding in the bushes to capture my priceless reaction, and the moment I realized everything that was happening. It was truly the best day ever!
Q5: We’re all about the bling… Tell us all about that ring!
A5: Josh did most of the ring research on his own. I had an idea of what I wanted but was not really too picky. We went window shopping a few times so he could get an idea of what I liked and what shapes I was into, and then he actually went and designed a ring from scratch by himself. The ring has a gorgeous oval-cut diamond center stone, surrounded by an oval diamond-encrusted halo. The ring has an engraved band with diamonds, all set in platinum.
Q6: Are you excited to start planning your wedding day? Do you have any ideas in mind yet?
A6: We recently started planning our wedding and while it has been a lot of work – especially planning a U.S.- based wedding from overseas, we are very excited. With the help of our planner, we are well on our way to carrying out our dream wedding. The wedding will be intimate and we can’t wait to be surrounded by our closest friends and family, at our wedding venue in Virginia Wine Country, come October 2020.
