Danielle & Jacob | Engagement Photos | Kinder Farm Park | Annapolis, MD

Engagement Photos at Kinder Farm Park, Annapolis, MD

I can’t say enough how wonderful it was getting to know Danielle & Jacob. I try to meet with my couples before I book them so that we can all be sure we’re all on the same page, and get along well. Choosing a wedding photographer is hard, especially when you’ve picked one who lives about 4 hours away! Danielle & Jacob live in Annapolis, but it worked out that we could meet one chilly day in the fall at the Ligonier Creamery!

We enjoyed some ice cream as they told me about how they met, fell in love, and got engaged. It goes something like this:

Online dating. It’s not for everyone, but for these two it’s quite the key in their story! They both had signed up for dating services on several different websites, and had messaged back and forth on “Plenty of Fish”, nothing serious, they both realized, they were considered a perfect match on another site! That would be match.com. Well when two dating sites say you are a good-perfect match for each other, you might want to get to know the person a little more.

They decided to exchange numbers and text for a while, and one day Jacob asked if he could call her. However, Danielle said NO! Feeling like it was a letdown, Jacob was confused, but was going to just let it go. Danielle said she was sick and didn’t want him to hear her with her voice like that. Gotta make a good first impression! But Jacob wasn’t buying it. He was certain she was just making an excuse to try and get rid of him.

The next couple of days Jacob spent trying to avoid Danielle. But it didn’t work. Eventually, she called him and to make things better, they decided to meet up. Starbucks is a nice public place for you to meet a stranger you only know from the internet right? So starbucks it was!

They had such a great time and didn’t want it to end. But one of Jacob’s friends had just had a baby and was going to get a present and go see the baby for the first time. After explaining to Danielle the the had to go, she said “Well why don’t I come with you?” And off they went to Target on their first date, diaper shopping! AND…they had a wonderful time.

After the lovely time they had shopping together, Jacob asked Danielle out on a second date, followed by a third and so forth.

A while passes in their relationship and they have fallen in love. One day, they were out together, when it hit Jacob that she was the one for him. The one he wanted to marry and spend the rest of his life with. Not mentioning this thought, he said to Danielle, “Remember this moment.” She asked why…and he said “One day you’ll know.”

He spent the next several months making sure she felt the same way and planning the proposal.

However, Jacob is not very good at keeping secrets. He gets all excited and just wants to share his joy. Totally understandable of course! Knowing that this would be the hardest secret to keep, he came up with a plan to throw her off!

He told her to request off work a specific weekend in October. He didn’t say why, but he kept on asking her to make sure she put in her request.

They had already planned a vacation to Charleston, SC in the summer, and Jacob decided he would propose to Danielle at sunset on the pier. He made dinner reservations at a nearby restaurant and then of course, he bought a beautiful ring!

Again, not wanting to be SO excited and give it all away, he knew he had to come up with a plan to hide the ring. After all, he was going to be carrying it around with him on vacation. He didn’t want her to catch him looking at it or fiddling with it in his pocket. So he bought her a second gift. A decoy.

When they left for vacation, he made sure to let her know he got her a gift to remember their trip by. And sure enough, one day he was making sure the ring box was there, and she caught him looking. He told her it was the gift he was going to give her later on.

Dinner came that evening, and they sat down to order. Jacob ordered seafood fettuccini, and Danielle ordered a low country boil. If you know what that is, then you know how long it can take to eat! Danielle figured that since they were on vacation, she might as well sit and enjoy it right?

This make Jacob really nervous as he finished his food and she was not even halfway done with hers! He looked at his watch and it was almost sunset! He tried to hurry her along, but again, thinking “This is vacation! Let me eat slowly.” Danielle took her time. When she as finally finished, he rushed her out the door and they started running. The sun had already begun to set and they had to make it to the pier!

Jacob is pretty much dragging Danielle along at this point. After all, who wants to go for a run after eating a big meal? They finally made it to the beach and there was this big fountain all lit up where there were kids and families playing. Danielle was fascinated with it and wanted to stay there.

At this point, the sun had all but set and it was nearly dark. Jacob told her they needed to get out on the pier as fast as they could!

When they reached the end, it was dark. So dark, they couldn’t see each other. He thought his plan was ruined, but oh well. They were there. He pulled out the decoy gift, a pandora charm, and gave it to her. She pulled out the flashlight on her phone to look at it and said “Oh..this is really nice!” and Jacob told her to look closer.

It was a heart shaped charm, but it was also a sort of locket box. She opened the box and engraved on the inside was a ring. It was a tiny Pandora ring box charm!

She gasped and brought her hands to her mouth, and shining the light back at Jacob, he was down on one knee.

He said “You remember when I asked you that one day to ‘Remember this moment’ and how I would never tell you why? That was the moment I knew I loved you and wanted to spend the rest of my life with you.”

“I’ve known since then, and I know for sure even more now. Danielle, will you marry me?”

She was so surprised and happy that tears started streaming down her face. Jacob said, “Is that a yes?” So with her hands over her mouth still in shock, she nodded yes.

They began planning their wedding for October the following year. Jacob grew up near Ligonier, and they wanted to get married there because of all family and friends they had.

Unfortunately, as life goes on, things happen, and in January before their wedding, Danielle got some bad news. Her moms health was going downhill.

They decided that they’d have a small ceremony about two weeks, at their church in Annapolis. There as nothing more important to them but for her mom to be there. And she was able to be there for the whole thing. Both of Danielle’s parents walked her down the aisle to Jacob.

It was a very snowy day! One of the biggest snow storms the east coast had seen in a while! But they were in love, they were happy, and the people they loved the most were there.

Unfortunately, Danielle’s mom passed away a few days later. But they will always have those memories to hold on to.

Because of everything happening so quickly, they decided they would still have their reception in October with the rest of their family and friends.

They continued planning, and decided to have their “engagement” photos taken at a farm they loved to visit in Annapolis. I made the trip out there one Sunday morning, and we had a wonderful time together.

It was a beautiful sunny day. There was a kids pet animals day going on. So many little kids around squealing for joy at being able to pet the animals!