Though they remember meeting in chemistry class in high school, they later learned that they had met far earlier than that. “Technically, we first met in the crib at Zach’s grandma’s house when we were in daycare. I was about 6 months old so I don’t remember that.” But his grandmother has a photo to prove it!

It didn’t take long for them to develop feelings for each other; it was chemistry class after all. He asked her to be his girlfriend shortly after going to homecoming together as “just friends.” Liz says she not sure if there was an exact time that she knew he was the one. “We went to high school and then college and it seems like he’s been with me through almost every big thing in my life. Nobody knows me or puts up with my nonsense the way he does, and I love him for that.”

I met Liz & Zach at Zach’s grandmother’s house–the same place they’ll be getting married next year!–for their engagement session. And while it wasn’t technically at the Palisades State Park, it’s right next door and we got some of the same beautiful, and private, scenery!

They brought their puppy along and within the first two minutes, she had jumped into the pond. She rocked the wet dog look though!

Zach proposed while they were on a camping (“glamping”) trip with his family. “We got to choose some activities beforehand to do while we were there so we chose to do a horseback trail ride and trap shooting,” Liz says. “There were only a million signs pointing to what was about to happen but I was oblivious. When we got to the trail ride there were only two horses (plus the wrangler and his horse). Which made me think, ‘How lucky are we that we’re the only two on the trail?’

“So we went up the mountain (at sunset…another missed clue) and Zach was really quiet the whole way. Usually he’s taking pictures and very outgoing; he would have normally been asking the wrangler a lot of questions and starting small talk. We got to the top of the mountain and tied our horses up and the wrangler told us to take our time. In my head, I was like, ‘Take our time doing what?’ So we walked up and there was a table with a dozen roses and a bottle of champagne and I said, ‘Zach, is that for us?’ but just kept on walking, kind of just confused, but still not putting it together.

“There was a big rock up ahead, named by Lewis and Clark: Look Out Rock. The blackfoot river was directly below at a dead drop off (it was terrifying) and you could see for miles. We were about to walk back down and Zach said, ‘Wait, look over here at this view.’ I turned to go back up and look out at the side view and when I turned back around to go down again, he got down on one knee and popped the question! Little did I know the champagne was really for us and he had a hidden photographer capture the whole thing! We went back down the mountain (at which point Zach was much chattier). When we got back to our camp we got to celebrate with all of Zach’s family.”

Liz & Zach, I’m SO excited to celebrate with you next year! Your wedding is going to be absolutely beautiful (we already know that, of course) and I’m so thrilled to see you start your lives as married people!