I got to meet with Claire and John at the North Carolina Museum of Art for a sweet newlywed session! When Covid-19 rained on their original weddings plans they went ahead and eloped and rescheduled their big wedding day plans. Claire and John were actually already booked with one of my sweet photographer friends but when they had to reschedule and she wasn’t available she referred them to me. While the circumstances are a bummer I am so thankful to have crossed paths with Claire and John. These two are beautiful souls. They radiate kindness and are so clearly in love and perfect together. And despite all this year has thrown them from having to reschedule their big wedding not once but twice, they have remained so positive making lemonade out of lemons!

Claire and John’s first date we met in the middle Danville, VA. She was in Lynchburg, VA and he was in Raleigh. They first met at a restaurant for lunch then went to a small local brewery for the afternoon. They had such an awesome time on their first date the very next day John decided to make the trip up to Lynchburg, VA to meet Sir Duke (Claire’s beloved fur baby) and to take her to dinner…thankfully Duke immediately fell in love with John.

On June 30th, 2019 John asked Claire to marry him. He had been talking about his family vacation for months before this to the Outer Banks, NC. Constantly making sure that Claire was going to have vacation time to take off for the trip. So she started to get a feeling that something special might happen on the trip. But a few weeks before they left for the trip, John told her that he wanted to take her on a weekend getaway to Wilmington, NC. Now Claire was sure that he would propose there with just them. But little did she know that John had been planning the OBX proposal the whole time.

With his family at the beach house, he told Claire that they were going to rent a Jeep and go drive out on the 4X4 part of the beach to go and find some wild horses! He had set up a GoPro on the windshield of the car and said his friend from work told him to test it out for him. Claire said she was just thinking whatever John, you’re weird. They pulled over, facing the beach, and John told her to go stand in front of the Jeep so that he could make sure that she was in front of the camera for a picture together. He grabbed the ring from his bag and came out to join her for a picture. He then got on one knee and asked Claire to marry him. And she of course said, YES!

On the way back to the house, they slowly drove, still looking for horses. Claire was still in shock of what had just happened. She wanted to immediately call her parents, but John said to wait until they got back to the house, and for good reason. When we got back to the house, waiting upstairs was John’s family. And to her surprise, Claire’s parents and Kelsey and Davis with decorations, music playing, and food! Isn’t that the most thoughtful and sweet proposal story?!

Congratulations Claire and John. I am so incredibly happy for you both and can’t wait to celebrate with you at your Highland Country Club wedding! Enjoy these favorites from you newlywed session!