Our Photos Tell a Story: The Engagement
This post is part of our series of the stories our photos tell. The stories are important.
Let me tell you a little story about two college kids who fell in love over 30 years ago. (Spoiler alert: one of them is me.)
Picture this: I was a junior at the College of William and Mary, and my then-boyfriend Troy had driven up from North Carolina State to attend my sorority’s end-of-semester party—shout out to Kappa Kappa Gamma!
My friend and I had plans to meet him for a celebratory lunch at The Trellis, which was the fancy restaurant in town. You know the kind—where poor college students could only afford to eat at for lunch unless someone’s parents were visiting. But right before I headed out, I got a message that my friend couldn’t make it. So off I went alone, strolling through Merchant Square to meet my man.
As I got closer—maybe 20 yards from the restaurant—I spotted Troy sitting on a planter. He was wearing a long black trench coat, his duct-taped high-top sneakers (classic), and holding a single rose. Outside the fancy restaurant. Naturally, I got a little suspicious.
I sat down beside him, and before I could even ask what was going on, he swung around, dropped to one knee, and—yep, you guessed it—he proposed. I said yes. There were happy tears. Lots of hugs. And just like that, the rest of our life together began.
But here’s the part that makes this story extra special…
Unbeknownst to us, a man nearby had been watching. Not in a creepy way—just a curious Colonial Williamsburg tourist kind of way. He saw this trench coat–wearing, rose-holding college guy and thought, What’s his deal? So he waited to see what would happen.
And when it all unfolded, he snapped a picture.
Remember—this was pre-social media, pre-livestreamed proposals, even pre-digital cameras. Back then, we weren’t glued to our phones because… well, we didn’t have them.
That kind stranger came up to us afterward, asked for my address, and a few weeks later, guess what showed up in the mail?
A printed photo. The moment he captured. Our moment.
I still have that photo, framed and sitting in our bedroom.
Every time I look at it, I’m transported back to the excitement, the phone call to my parents, the surprise reveal to my sorority sisters, the party that night… all tied up in one beautiful, spontaneous photo, sent by someone who just happened to be in the right place at the right time.
That’s the magic of photos—they freeze time, capture emotion, and tell our stories in a way nothing else can.
So, now I have to ask—what’s your great love story?
And if you want to know what happened after the engagement (yes, there was a so-called “argument” before the wedding), click here to read the next chapter of our love story.
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