This is an exciting post for me personally as it is the proposal session of my very best friend in the entire world, Barbara.  We met our sophomore year in college and lived in the same room for three years together.  While life has led her to Washington, DC and me to Texas, we still remain great friends.  I started hearing stories about this guy “Ben” when I was still in Ethiopia and little did I know that their relationship would develop and lead to Ben becoming Barbara’s husband to be!

Ben gave me a call about 3 weeks ago and said that August 6th in Washington DC was going to be the big date and asked if Geoff and I would be able to make it to take some photos of the proposal!  It just so happened (but I think by no coincidence!) that Geoff and I were going to be in Philadelphia that same weekend shooting a Friday wedding with a rental car and just a short 2.5 hour drive to DC.  We woke up early Saturday morning and drove to D.C. where I met up with some of my closest girlfriends from college and we started planning the day of surprises.  Ben took Barbara out for a day of activities while we decorated his house for a surprise party!  Their day ended at the Washington National Cathedral, a beautiful Gothic style cathedral right outside of downtown DC.  We got a little nervous as we made the drive out to the Cathedral because it started to monsoon and we were hoping that Ben’s big day plans weren’t getting rained out!

We drove up to the Cathedral, with Ben’s roommate as the navigator, in stealth mode to capture a few photos of the event going down but little did she know that three of her closest friends were waiting as a second surprise.  After finding out that she said yes we positioned ourselves as the bottom of the steps and had Ben lead her to the top.  When she came around the corner we were waiting at the bottom with tear filled eyes as we reveled in the happiness for our newly engaged friend! We had sweet moments with her as she took a few minutes to take it all in that we were actually there and then we snapped a few more photos of the newly engaged glowing couple.  We concluded the night with a surprise party back at Ben’s house with some of their closest friends from DC.  It was a joyous night for sure.   Geoff and I both could not be happier for Barbara and Ben as they embark on this new season of life together!  Hope you enjoy the photos of this beautiful couple!  -R