Natasha & Andrew
Natasha and Andrew are pretty private people, but they wanted an engagement photo that reflected their personalities. So Wendy’s Secret Garden, Lavender Bay was the most beautiful setting for their simple, romantic engagement photos. Just them – a beautiful garden backdrop and plenty of fun.
Natasha tells the story of how they met. “They say that you find love when you least expect it, and that’s exactly what it was for Andy and I. I recently came back from being in Europe for over 9months and I wasn’t keen on going out this particular weekend but my best friend persuaded me that it was just a casual barbeque at her boyfriend’s house. She’s very persuasive, so I didn’t gave the heart to say no. That night I met Andy, and my first thoughts by the end of the night were “he’s not my type, definitely not my type”, but little did we know, we couldn’t be more perfect for each other. After a few more encounters at a few different events with all of our mutual friends we met up one night in what I would call our “first super casual date” – watching a movie together. I saw a different side of Andy that night, a more sensitive and charming side and very shortly after that we became inseparable. Things haven’t changed since.”
“Andy and I are both quite reserved, and were both so nervous about this photo shoot with gm photographics. I remember when we first met them my only request was, “I want to shoot somewhere were it’s a bit more secluded, I don’t want 1oo eyes on me, it’s going to make us more nervous than what we already are”. When they showed us a few image of Wendy’s Secret Garden, we loved the idea of how tranquil, special and secluded this spot was! We also knew that we both wanted a really casual and natural style of shoot, nothing fancy or over the top, something that represented the both of us. Andy has grown up living on acreage so its safe to say he loves being outdoors! As for myself, I love nature and I am always awed at the incredible natural features we have in this world. That is why we had to have the shot of us standing by the huge tree in Wendy’s Secret Garden. It was a work of art, there is no way we were going home without it! ”
“Before we started dating, we went down to Avoca for a weekend with a bunch of close friends were we starting talking and getting to know each other as friends. After a few drinks, Andy put his arms around me as I was sitting on the lounge saying “so are you going to kiss me”, and I turned around to him and said “I barely know you, and we haven’t even gone on a date”, his response to that was “we don’t have to do everything in order”. I laughed it off, and I said “you’ve got another thing coming if you think we’re ever gonna go on a date”. Sitting across from us was a mutual friend of a friend that we both didn’t know to tell and he blurted out “you two are probably gonna get married, so just do it”. I told him he was insane. I look back on this moment now and laugh because it wasn’t insane at all.”
The proposal was in the beautiful Hawaii, the bride to be remembering, “We went to Hawaii back in December of 2012. A few people had asked me what I would do if he proposed and my response was always ‘Are you kidding me, I’m 21 as if he’s going to propose?’ and besides we said it wouldn’t happen for another few years at least”. Obviously I was wrong.
We were a few nights into our holiday and we decided to go out for a local dinner by the beach in Maui. Andy had planned for this to all happen around sunset and was rushing me down to the beach as quickly as he could while I was distracted by all the shops around me (typical female). He started acting really strange and was adamant that he wanted to see the sunset, which I thought was odd, because we had another 10 sunsets to see on our trip. When we got down to the beach we stood on this grassy area and he said to me “no I want to go on the sand”and I refused “my shoes are going to get dirty, I can see the sunset from here just fine” Andy’s reply was “please I want to go down to the sand”.
I knew something was wrong, Andy was never pushy about anything, and I could see he was getting upset so I gave in and as we walked down the stairs I recall saying “what is wrong with you, are you going to propose or something? and in that moment he dropped down on one knew and said “yes, I am”. I stood back on the sand, beyond shocked and I said “are you serious?”, he pulled out the ring, and I looked around me, thinking I must be dreaming and then he asked the question, of course I said yes! We celebrated by the beach that night at a beautiful bar and sipped on cocktails, in disbelief at what had just happened.”
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