A Fall Fonthill Castle Engagement Session

Fonthill Castle in Doylestown is such a lovely spot for engagement photos!  I had such a great time with Michele and Dave and their pup, Nova.  Bring a pup, and a we are instantly going to be best friends.  I’m super excited for their wedding next year.  Enjoy a little bit about their story and a few of my favorite photos from their Fonthill Castle engagement session!

How did you first meet?

Dave and I met in college, freshman year at Villanova. We must have met in passing at some point, but one of my first memories of him is when he came to an intramural softball league I was on with some of his friends. I saw him and thought he was really cute, but he was dating someone and I didn’t think much more of it. Two years after we graduated, I went to a Villanova fundraiser with my friends, one of whom was dating one of Dave’s friends/roommates. After the fundraiser, Chris suggested we go collect his roommates and go out in Conshohocken. Dave was there and then came out with us. This time we were both single, and it all just clicked! Sometimes it IS all about timing!

What was your first date?

Weirdly enough, our first date was on the two year anniversary of graduating from college together. We had dinner together in Wayne – I was really nervous and felt like I had nothing interesting to say, but at least he was willing to go out with me again!

I wish I remember what I had to eat or say during our first date, but to be honest I can’t remember any of that. What I do remember is how slowly the day passed. I was working on finishing up grad school when we had our first date and I just remember thinking that the day was absolutely dragging by since I was so excited to actually go out with Michele on a date. At the time, I didn’t have a real job to distract, so I was fairly unproductive that day and annoyed how long it took for dinner time to come around. I also am pretty sure that I overthought and rethought my outfit numerous different times so that Michele was either impressed or at least not judging me :)

How did he propose?

Dave is a good secret keeper and he’s GREAT at surprises. Me, not so much. A few days ahead of time, Dave randomly asked me to get dinner after work – it ended up working out because a late meeting had forced me to cancel on a friend I was originally supposed to meet! I told Dave the wrong time the meeting ended accidentally, and he was REALLY stressed when I got home late! We raced into Philadelphia from Conshohocken to make our dinner reservation, and Dave kept turning down my offers to call the restaurant and apologize and push back the reservation. We ended up in front of The Waterworks and Dave wandered over to the gazebo.  I was still confused (we rushed in only to take a leisurely stroll along the river?!) when he told me loved me and asked me to marry him!

My first reaction was to ask if he was serious – despite the fact that he was down on one knee, and he had a diamond ring in his hand. I don’t think he loved that part…but eventually I got over being stunned and said yes!  Dave and I rushed right back OUT of the city to meet our families in Conshohocken for dinner (another surprise) at one of our favorite restaurants. It was a great proposal – I loved that it was just the two of us for the moment, but that we got to celebrate with our families right after! Dave had also coordinated with one of his friends to (somewhat creepily) take pictures of the actual proposal, so we now have memories that will last a lifetime!

What are your favorite things to do together?

We have a lot of shared favorites – going to concerts, playing with our dog Nova, watching movies, drinking hot chocolate, decorating for Christmas (unfortunately we see a lot of money going this way) and hiking. We also enjoy baking cookies (gluten free of course), seeing shows (our list now includes Phantom of the Opera, The Lion King, Wicked and soon to be Aladdin among others) and watching stand up comedy (either in person or on tv).