Now, I’m not saying that the high school marching band will lead you to your future spouse, but a saxophone is pretty sexy. And it turns out, for Abi and Harrison, the marching band did lead them to each other, tenor saxophones and all.

They didn’t have many classes together, however, they were in the same speech class. As Harrison says, “During one of Abi’s speeches, she singled me out on how my mom ironed my clothes. I followed up by poking some fun at her expense during my next speech.” It was around that same time that she was moved to his section in band, tenor saxophone, because he was the only one and he says he “was terrible.” That gave them the opportunity to spend more time together. She also took stats for football so he would try to get out of the locker room early after games for the chance to talk to her.

Harrison picks it up from there: “Abi needed a catcher for a softball pitching clinic she was going to at Central College, so I threw my name in to go catch for her.  Little did I know that this would be the start to my long career donning the catching equipment and chasing softballs.    

“A while later I finally asked if she wanted to go see a movie after a basketball game one night.  The only movie that we could make it to was the first Narnia movie.  The movie was terrible (maybe because we talked through the whole thing and didn’t really watch it).  I later found out that she even had her friend call halfway into the evening just in case she needed an out.  She didn’t take it though. 

“We went ‘official’ the end of January 2006 her senior year and my junior year.  She went off to Wartburg that fall, while I finished up high school. My parents were great in letting me go up and visit her when I could.  Then in 2007, I headed off to Wartburg. It was great seeing each other whenever we wanted. We would go on ‘Mesa dates.’  (Mesa was the name of the cafeteria.) Then I decided to transfer to Missouri University of Science and Tech.  Abi wasn’t too happy at first, but she was supportive–even though I would be 7 hours away from her at Wartburg.

“After 5 years I finally decided to get the ring.  I picked it out in April with the help of my dad, but I waited until the end of June to finally pop the question. It was really tough figuring out how I was going to ask. Abi and I take a lot of walks with my dog, Kobi, so I thought that if we took a nice walk with Kobi one night, it would be a great way to pop the question. Plus she would never suspect it, and we rarely see anyone on our walks. 

“I must have picked the most humid day in June to go on our walk.  It was miserably sticky and, on top of that, Kobi had been walked previously and was already extremely tired.  But I kept insisting that he needed walked.  So we went, and of course the one night we go there are two other people on the track.  I kept saying lets go one more lap, hoping Kobi wouldn’t get heat exhaustion, until finally the two other walkers left.  The next lap, when we got to the corner, I did the cheesy, ‘Oh, my shoe is untied.’ At this moment I thought to myself, ‘I should have thought of something romantic to say’; however, I proved the engineering stereotype and basically word-vomited some cheesy little line. Luckily, the ring did the talking for me. She was completely caught off-guard.”

As perfect timing would have it, they were attending his cousin’s wedding in mid-July that I was photographing. Within a few days, they had lined up a time to meet with me and I knew from the get-go that I was really going to like them.

I think you’re going to like them too.

I am in love with these photos. I think it has something to do with how perfectly her red jacket pops against the neutral background. It may also have something to do with how beautiful they are.

I know I kept saying it all night, but you two are beautiful people–truly–inside and out. I am honored and thrilled to be a small part of your wedding day and, if this session was any indication, we’re going to have a lot of fun on June 1st.