I love Christian and Joe’s engagement story, so I want to start off with that. In Christian’s words,

Joseph proposed on July 10, 2019, during our trip to Nashville, TN. We went to Nashville for a couple of reasons; however, the main reason being I gifted Joseph with concert tickets to see his favorite music artist, Rob Thomas. The concert was the night before we got engaged, and we decided to have a nice dinner prior to the concert. I was chewing a piece of gum on the way to the restaurant and forgot to spit it out prior to entering the restaurant. Joseph handed me a piece of paper that he had in his wallet so I could spit out my gum. My nosey self couldn’t help but open it and guess what the paper was? It was a receipt for a large purchase from Barnes Jewelers.

Because I am an excellent actress, I spit out my gum into the receipt and acted like nothing was wrong even though I was feeling a slew of emotions. I texted my mother and brothers and told them I found a receipt from a jewelry store and had a feeling Joseph was going to propose. My older brother gave Joseph a heads up that I was onto him, so the next day while we were walking to the car to head to dinner, Joseph thought it was funny to reenact a scene from ‘The Office’ by calling my name, getting down on one knee, pausing, and telling me he had to tie his shoe. When we walked out of the hotel, a town car was waiting for us. The chauffeur then pulled a sign from behind his back that read “Will you marry me?”. Joseph then got down on one knee, for real this time, and asked me to marry him.

During our hour together for their engagement session, I could tell that their shared sense of humor and experiences together over several years of dating, really brought these two together. They were comfortable being romantic and goofy and spontaneous! We decided to walk around downtown Columbia for their portraits with a stop by the location of their first date, Bourbon’s restaurant.

I’m so excited about their wedding at 1208 Washington next year! Congrats Christian and Joe!