Meadowlark Botanical Gardens Engagement Session | Lieb Photographic | Trisha and Dan
Jul 28, 2021
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Trisha and Dan met up with me at Meadowlark Botanical Gardens for their July engagement session. Their Airlie wedding is in September of this year so it was great to finally meet them in person! I have really enjoyed getting to connect with Trisha and Dan and learn so much more about them…including the fact that Dan is also a woodworker and a flower preservationist! So you can imagine that their wedding favors are going to be something special (I’ll wait and let you see those when the time comes).
We had such a great evening and even though it was hot, it wasn’t ass hot as it could have been, especially with some choice shady areas in Meadowlark. After our time there, we also went to their house on Lake Thoreau for more photos and I got to meet their two dogs, which was like icing on the cake. So now on to their story in their own words…
How they met…
In Dan’s words: “It all started when I stumbled across Trisha’s profile on Bumble…who knew the moment I swept right on her profile; my heart was going right along with it! It took her two days to reach out to me, I even had to go all in and pay the extra $1 to extend my time from 24 to 48 hours for her to respond! Finally, there it was, ‘Hi Dan, how was your Christmas?’…I was giddy like a little kid on Christmas morning…she replied!…then again, if you saw the pictures of me online, you would totally understand why she would!
I wanted so badly to get the know the girl behind that amazing smile and beautiful blue eyes… It didn’t take too long before the conversations moved from texting back in forth to meeting each other for the first time. We scheduled to meet for dinner on Friday January 3rd, but when Trisha asked what time I wanted to meet that Friday, I took a big chance and said, how about Thursday night at 6! I was so nervous after sending that message, I didn’t want to mess anything up before we even met! So, let me explain why I took the gamble…during our conversations leading up to that, I learned that Trisha’s favorite color was purple and that her favorite flower was the tulip. I’m kinda old fashioned, I really wanted to pick her up at her condo that Friday for our date to give her flowers…if you saw a picture of the flowers you would understand, it was lots of purple tulips!
My plan was to meet up on Thursday so she can get to know me and hopefully trust me so I could ask to pick her up on Friday. I got lucky and she said yes, we could meet on Thursday! I got to the restaurant before she did and I remember just setting at the table watching the front door waiting for her to walk in! Then it happened, she walked in and my heart started racing! She sat down and we started talking…I couldn’t stop looking into her blue eyes, I’m surprised I made any sense at all the first 5 minutes! After I gained my composure, the conversation never stopped. It started with drinks and then it moved to dinner. I really didn’t want it to end, but all good things have to come to an end, but before it did, I pulled out my secret weapon…a gift for her dog Izzy! I had gotten a little wooden box and glued wooden letters that spelled ‘Izzy’ on it and packed it with treats and toys.
So, the time had come to finally leave and as we were walking out of the door, I turned to her and asked, is it okay is I pick you up tomorrow? I will never forget the look in her eyes as she said yes! As I was walking back to my car, I couldn’t stop thinking about her, that smile and those eyes…I knew from that moment my life was about the change. Needless to say, Friday night’s date was amazing! I was so excited as I walked up to her front door with tulips in hand!
We laughed and talked all night long at dinner and after at a bar near her condo. I enjoyed learning about her, I could not stop asking questions, I just wanted to keep learning all I could. The more she talked, the more I could look into her eyes! The next day at home when I was out walking my dog I ran into my upstairs neighbor and she asked how the date went. I told her all about our date and at the end before leaving I said that Trisha is the one and that I will be marrying her someday…”
So how did he propose?
In Trisha’s words…”While we knew we wanted to get married for a couple months after moving into our home, Dan wanted to ask Trisha’s dad first. Given limited travel with COVID in the middle of 2020, this was a challenge. We love to go out on our lake most evenings with our dogs (Kacee and Izzy) and just enjoy the water and fresh air. On November 6th, 2020, I got home from work early, just in time to get out on the boat before sunset – our favorite.
The weather was beautiful for November. We were enjoying the evening when Dan all of a sudden got really serious…and down on one knee. I was shocked since (as far as I knew) he hadn’t asked her parents. I of course still said yes, but Dan did clarify later he had actually made a 24 hour trip to Iowa a couple weeks before to ask my dad for my hand. It was perfect – just the two of us (and our pups) in our favorite place.”
What a joy it was to finally meet you both and photograph your engagement session! I’m looking forward to September!
Keep scrolling for more highlights from Trisha and Dan’s Meadowlark Botanical Gardens engagement session.
Michelle with Lieb Photographic is a Northern Virginia Wedding Photographer, a Charlottesville Wedding Photographer and photographs destinations worldwide. To see more weddings and engagement sessions in the Northern Virginia area, view the Leesburg Wedding Venue page. If you’d like to explore some more of my favorite wedding venues in the Virginia and Washington D.C. areas, view the Wedding Venues page. If you’d like to view more lovely engagement sessions, visit the engagement session gallery.
