They met last summer when Phil’s sister invited Melissa to join their family for a day of golfing and by the time they went on their first date, they knew it would be forever for their relationship. “I think I knew he was the one when he asked me to be his girlfriend. We went walking and we talked about how we felt about one another, what was important to us, etc. It was a very special and intimate moment that I will never forget.” 

Phil says he knew “…on our first date. It was so easy to talk to Melissa on our walk. I never shared things like I did that day with anyone, I knew I could trust her with anything. I knew I loved her that day.”

I got to meet them both this past fall at Melissa’s sister’s wedding (hi, Laura & Matt!) and was so excited when I saw Melissa’s name pop into my inbox last month. Phil had just proposed on New Year’s Day and, in similar fashion to her sister, Melissa wanted snow for her engagement session. We were so lucky to reschedule their trip down to Iowa from our original date two weeks ago to this past Saturday because the temperature was at least 40 degrees different…and that’s saying something because it was just in the high 20s for this session. (Melissa, you win. I thought it was colder at Matt & Laura’s engagement shoot, but, in my notes, I’m finding it had hit 30 that day.)

Melissa and Phil live in Minnesota and, for the proposal, Phil took her to look at Christmas lights in a town called Sleepy Eye because he loves Melissa and Melissa loves Christmas and Christmas lights. “We went around the loop a couple of times and saw all the lights there. He wanted to get out of the vehicle to take a picture but I resisted because I had no make up on–LOL. He was persistent though and asked me to marry him in front of a huge Christmas tree with tons of lights.”