Randi and Eric have known each other for a long time. Middle school, to be exact. But it wasn’t until freshman year of high school that they began interacting. “My first memory of us talking was during freshman year of high school American studies class when he would move seats to sit in the empty seat behind me. He was accidentally counted as absent a few times,” she said. They went through four years of high school, four years of college, and grad school together and she can’t think of a time when it really hit her that Eric was the one. “At some point I realized that I couldn’t imagine life without him in it. With him, home became a person, not a place as cliche as that is.”

For the proposal, Eric had no idea how to ask her, but he had the ring and knew he wanted to do it on their trip to Jamaica last year. “It was our first big vacation, just the two of us,” Randi said. “I suspected it was going to happen, but at the same time, we had been together for so long and I wanted it to be done on his time without me pushing him.”

In a “very us” kind of way, Eric proposed one night before dinner. “We were just drinking some wine before going to a fancy dinner and it came up in conversation that I hadn’t asked her to marry me yet. I just kind of laughed and did it then; whipped out the ring and asked her on the spot. I think I surprised her!”

“He asked me if I would believe him if he said he had a ring in his suitcase,” Randi added. “He got down on one knee and said, ‘So are you going to marry me or what?’ It was so perfect and so us.”

I first met Randi when she was a bridesmaid in Taylor and Taylor’s wedding and when she reached out for her own wedding, she said, “I absolutely loved how you made photos to fun and everyone so photogenic.” (Ironically, at that very time she emailed, I was editing photos from Taylor’s sister Lauren’s engagement session. This will be the third wedding that I get to photograph Taylor in and I’m very thrilled about it.) I got to hang out with Randi and Eric this past weekend when they were back in Iowa for some wedding things and we had the best time at the fossil gorge, a favorite place of mine. They are so cute together and absolutely A+ humans to hang around with so I cannot wait to do this again in August!!!