They met at Iowa State University in 2019 at college orientation. “Our major was pretty small so there were only two other students there that day,” Emma recalled. “I thought he was very cute so I was excited when we then became lab partners our first semester of college.”

Matt said their first date was on Valentine’s Day and he very nervous. He got her flowers, but since she was living in the dorm at the time, she didn’t have a vase so their first stop was to buy one. After that, they went out for dinner and bowling. Emma said, “I was terrified because I had liked him for a very long time by that point and wanted the date to go well.” Thankfully, it was very well and they had a lot of fun together.

It was while they were dating long distance that they both knew. “I just remember how crazy both of our schedules were at the time and how hard it was,” Matt remembered. “I was scared about getting married, but then it hit me that there wasn’t anyone else I wanted to go through life with.”

Emma said she kind of always knew he was the one, but they were dating long distance for about a year while she was going to school in Minnesota and “I think spending all that time apart and seeing how much effort we both put into making time for each other solidified the fact that I knew I wanted to marry him.”

The day that Matt proposed, Emma was shopping with her mom most of the day. “Before we got engaged, I had asked him to please propose to me when I had my nails done, but that day, they were not. My mom had dropped a million hints that I needed to get my nails done that day and even went to Ulta and bought me press ons, but I still hadn’t taken the hint. I was completely blindsided by the proposal,” she said. “We came back and Matthew had flower petals scattered and candles lit inside our apartment. He gave me a whole speech about how much he loved me and our relationship, but I don’t remember a single thing he said because I was so shocked. It was very sweet and the perfect proposal.”

For their engagement session, we met at Calyx Creek Lavender Farm, a place I have been so excited to shoot at! We scheduled their session around when the lavender would be in bloom and we got a hot, but perfect evening in the best smelling place around. We finished just in time too because storms were rolling in and I had to outrun it to get home afterwards.