Wow. I can honestly say that I never imagined that my life would turn out this way. I always thought that I would keep at the never-ending grind of being a semi-sucessful-regionally-touring musician for a few more years, maybe write a couple of hit songs and have a somewhat promising career as a musician; playing with whomever would pay the most.
Then I met Halie.
Well, let's not get ahead of ourselves. I probably had met Halie at some point in my life. We both grew up in the small town of Perry, GA (popluation 14,926). We attended the same church, were in the same choir, went to the same swimming pool every day of summer - hell we even played baseball at the same park for 5 years straight. We went to the same school, had the same friend group and yet the strange thing is, neither of us remember each other. We knew that each other existed in our teenage years, while Halie was busy running around being beautiful and breaking boys hearts and I was busy playing in bands and trying to find the skinniest jeans on the discount rack.
Fast forward a few years and Halie and I are 92 miles away. She in Athens, working on her undergraduate degree at the Lamar Dodd School of Art at the University of Georgia and I playing in two bands and dealing poker for a living. Miles apart, we somehow were in the same emotional place and time in our lives. We were both unhappy in relationships that were very well past their expiration date (quite resembling sour milk) and open to the possibility of meeting someone new.
THEN CAME TINDER.
Miraculously enough, this app changed my life forever. Halie and I both had exhausted all other avenues for finding a potential suitor. We were so very tired of rehashing the same stories with the same people, day in and day out. Lucky for me, the range of distance that Tinder will let you search is 100 miles. I decided (and apparently she did to) that we needed to maximize the search distance to try to tilt the odds in our favor as much as possible.
As soon as I came across Halie's profile, I was floored. I instantly found her Instagram so that I could scour through her photos in the attempt to verify that this was, in fact, the same girl. I looked at every photo, from every angle, and my heart was beating faster and faster with every page. I found her personal photography website through her Instagram and stumbled upon her project entitled "Projections" and could not believe the talent that laid before my eyes. I immediately sent it to my best friend Mitch (a fellow artist) and he was very into it as well.
I mustered up the courage to match her, and, to my surprise, she matched with me as well. (I found out at a later date that it was actually her mother that matched with me while using her phone as Halie was describing the app and showing her how it worked.) I asked her out a couple of times, disguising it as an inquiry for her to come take pictures of my band at our show. For free. (Smooth, I know)
After about three months of texting a couple times a week, we finally decided to meet. I will let Halie take it from here, in the form of an email she sent while we were inquiring for our [SPOILER ALERT] very own wedding photographer.
"For our first date, he took me to a park in my hometown (I was visiting my parents and he lived about 35 minutes away). He brought wine, cheese, chocolate, etc. We ended up sitting there for 8 hours just talking. My mom thought he kidnapped me! One week after our first date, I packed up and headed to Austin, TX for the next month and a half. We continued to talk, but nothing too serious. I tried to keep my distance because I just knew he would forget about me and move on before I returned. Little did I know, he took it a lot more seriously than I thought. He wanted to be the first person I saw when I got back to Georgia. From then on, we were pretty much inseparable. I lived in Athens and he lived in Macon (about 2 hours apart). I found myself regularly escaping Athens and staying with him for days at a time. Eventually, we decided to move in together. I moved to Macon because it made more sense for my business and for his work. I am happy to say that this week, we both moved to Athens into a cute little 1950's home.
THE PROPOSAL: Alec and I were shooting a wedding in North Georgia and planned to stay and camp out the night after at a nearby State Park, Tallulah Gorge (if you haven't been, go!). I am super picky about camp sites. Like I said, I love to be by the water. Alec drove me around for hours and hours, from campground to campground looking for the perfect site. I remember standing up through the sun roof as he drove through the mountains, thinking "today is so perfect". I had no idea it was about to get even better. We finally found a spot right by the creek. He asked me to walk down to the water with him. He stood behind me and told me everything he loved about me, made lots of promises, told me his hopes for our future together, and then asked me to be his wife. I was pretty much just speechless and in shock, overwhelmed with joy. The ring is so perfect for me; it's an antique ruby and diamond ring that belonged to his mom."
So, here we are, present day. December 24, 2015. Engaged. Business partners. Life partners.
After Halie taught me everything I know about photography, it seemed natural to go into business together. We get to spent almost every moment with each other, create beautiful works of art with beautiful people, travel the world, and, most importantly, set ourselves up for a career that will allow us to spend time with our children and never miss a moment with them.
The following photos were taken by the two of us on a mini-vacation to the mountains of Asheville, NC last week.
We are so very excited to share the next chapter of our lives together with you. Thank you all so very much for your interest in our lives and careers. We wouldn't be here without you.
-a
