Theodore Roosevelt Island   |   Heather & Eric   |   Washington, DC Proposal

Oh my gosh — I LOVE proposals!

I met Heather & Eric last summer at our first lavender festival at Seven Oaks Lavender Farm. I have seen them a couple times since, but this was by far the most exciting! Eric contacted me a few weeks out saying “I’d like to schedule you for a very special photo opportunity…” My reply to him was, “…Is this what I think it is?!”

He had the entire evening planned out down to the Google Map pin-point and all went exactly as anticipated. I met the two of them on Theodore Roosevelt Island in Rosslyn on an early Spring Saturday afternoon. I hid myself in the bushes, scared multiple passersby and got sniffed out by dogs as I waited for them to arrive (I actually thought the dogs were going to give me away!). Eric and Heather arrived  shortly after and before you know it, he was down on one knee in the center of the park proposing as spectators sitting on nearby park benches gave cheers of applause.

It was such a beautiful moment. We spent time together wandering the island, admiring Heather’s beautiful ring and catching up since the last time I saw them before they ended their evening with a romantic dinner in the city. When we were leaving, we ran into a friend from Eric’s grad school class and he was absolutely hysterical. Eric told him they had just gotten engaged — literally minutes ago and he was the first person to find out — his friend shouts mid-run from across the bridge, “What!? Congratulations, man! I’m a huge fan of what you are doing —  big, BIG FAN of marriage!”

I asked Heather to give us a personal look into her and Eric’s love story over the past couple of years. Here is a little snapshot of what she shared with me. Such a beautiful modern day love story — gave me goosebumps!!!

“Eric and I met in June of 2017 through Bumble. I was still not sold on the idea of Bumble & wasn’t convinced I would ever meet up with him.

One of the first text chats I had with Eric, I made a nerdy joke about Austrian Economist Fredrick Hayek. I fully expected him to have no clue what I was talking about. Instead, he began chatting about a speech given to Parliament on the impact Hayek has had on economic policy. I realized he may be my sort of weird.

I tried to cancel our first date, thankfully a friend forced me to go. It was supposed to just be a quick drink. Instead, it turned into an 8-hour ordeal and only ended when we were told the bar was closing — it was 2 am…on a Tuesday. It was the best date I had ever been on. I think I knew then that this was likely something really special.

Over the year and half that has followed, we have gone from strangers to partners. We are very different. I like plans and structure (maybe a bit too much, sometimes) and Eric is a “go-with-the-flow” type. I was an only child until I was a freshman in high school, and Eric is the oldest of four. His strengths are my weakness; my strengths are his weakness. Because of these things — we bring out the best in each other and challenge each other every day.

The guy who I was not keen on going on a date with because I met him on a dating app became my best friend and the love of my life, and now I cannot imagine life without him.”