03/20/2019
Congrats Sarah + Nicholas on a St. Patrick's Day you will remember forever. How lucky you two are to have found each other 🍀
IT HAPPENED. MY SISTER IS FINALLY ENGAGED. Sarah + Nick are seriously the perfect match. They work hard at their relationship and love each other so well, and have for 5+ years.
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After 5+ years of Nick loving my sister and a few weeks of scheming, we made it happen. I got a text “we need to talk..............” a few weeks ago, followed by a phone call of lots of freaking out (mostly on my end) and sorting out details. Nick would be coming to Florida with us for the weekend. My parents would be there Friday, but were driving north to Sarasota to see friends for the remainder, and Kelly would be busy studying for grad school finals home in Chicago. It was the perfect set up.
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On St. Patrick’s Day, the three of us headed to the beach for sunset. I “begged” Sarah and Nick to let me take their pictures at the beach, so we left with a bottle of wine for sunset and time for photos. Sarah has had a cold all weekend and insisted we stop at CVS on the way to the beach. Y’all. She missed the turn into CVS and anyone who knows Naples knows it’s not an easy turnaround to get into a parking lot, then Sar took what felt like forever in CVS (but because of this we knew she had NO idea it was coming). The ring was in my camera bag (no WONDER it was so heavy!) and the cue would be for nick to go get me a different lens.
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Once at the beach, I got the text from my family “here!”, so I said let’s start pictures. I gave Nick the OK to go grab my lens, he handed it to me, and I told them I needed a minute to go switch out my lenses so they could have their moment and I wasn’t anywhere too close to them.
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Through the lens of my camera I saw Nick drop to his knee, I watched my best friend, sister, and role model smile and cry and shout yes to the man of her dreams, all while my family was hiding behind a tree and came running out (Mom + Dad had driven back a night early and Kelly had flown in about an hour before). Nick was thoughtful in his planning and intentional in crafting a proposal that would make his love feel loved, and he was gracious to let us be a part of it. She is so lucky to have him, and he is so lucky to have her.
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We popped champagne, stayed at the beach until dark, ate steak at 9pm, told stories, and celebrated this milestone and Sarah + Nick’s forever love. Nick has felt like family for years, but now we get to make it official.