“Jennifer Michelle Wren, I have been waiting for the coming of this moment, to be down on one knee looking into your beautiful eyes for over two and half years. Jennifer, will you marry me?”

Flashback to two and a half years ago – It is March and my two best friends, Craig and Brandon, are going to the UNM Alpha Chi Omega Spring Formal with two of our good friends and fellow Senators, and their “little sis,” Jennifer Wren. Now admittedly I was pretty apprehensive about the whole situation, as I had just transferred to UNM in the fall semester and was pretty recluse until Craig and Brandon came along. They had helped me out of my shell, but a sorority formal was a whole different ballgame.

As the three of us walked into the pre-party to meet up with ladies, I was overwhelmed by a wall of scent burning my nose; the mixture of Aqua-Net and of what I could only assume were various perfumes was intoxicating. I followed the boys through the entryway into the kitchen, and as we came upon the three women my stomach jumped up into my throat. That “butterflies in your stomach” cliché doesn’t even begin to describe what was happening underneath my carnation pink tie at that moment. As this gorgeous woman glided towards me from across the kitchen I could feel every muscle in my body tense up. I straightened up, began to extend my hand, and cleared my throat just as I watched my good buddy Brandon embrace the girl of my dreams right next to me.

Lucky for us, nothing came of that night for anyone. Yet, even though I had not gotten a chance to even talk to Jennifer that night, I somehow knew that she was the one for me. I also knew, however, that she had no such inclination towards me.

Over the next year and a half I would see her around campus and to at least catch her attention with a smile (often wondering whether or not she even saw me standing right in front of her). I would constantly remind Craig, my new roommate, that I would one day marry this girl of my dreams, though admittedly, she had no idea who I was and wouldn’t for quite some time.

I finally got up the courage to actually initiate conversation with her at a sort of freshman orientation party at UNM the Friday night before the beginning of the semester. At the end of our superficial “how have you been, how was your summer?” I explained to her that my phone had just been stolen and I had lost her number (though, I left out the part about never having had her number in the first place) and she gave it to me without even a second thought and thus, the chase was on.

Both Saturday and Sunday night I attempted to meet up with her and failed miserably as she was busy getting ready for the semester (or as I interpreted it, washing her hair). Finally, my one last chance was to invite her to the annual “Beck and Burgess Tuesday Night Barbeque and Bar Hop” via our mutual friend Drea. This last attempt actually met with mediocre success as Drea dragged her along to the barbeque and after a few hours there, and a few drinks at the bar, I got up the confidence to talk to her and it went quite well. On August 22, 2007 at about 1:15 in the morning, as we stood outside Monte Vista Firestation I got the goodnight kiss that I had been waiting over a year for.

Now, a year later, I found myself down on one knee on the patio at Sandia Golf Course, ring in hand, looking up at the girl of my dreams with my heart pounding in my throat as I somehow out the sentence that I had been rehearsing over in head for 18 very long holes of golf. As she opened her trembling lips and glanced down at me in my Polo Shirt and Golf Shoes she cried “No you’re not!” …OK… Not quite what I was looking for but I’ll wait for a few more moments. Finally, with tears in her eyes and taking a very deep breath she said YES.

Jennifer and I will be the perfect couple for you to select for your valentine’s day photography packet giveaway in New Mexico because our wedding will be a gorgeous opportunity for photographs and being shot by such amazing photographers will allow us to share our wedding with those that cannot make it to the ceremony. Jennifer has two grandfathers, one in Scotland and one in Pennsylvania that are not healthy enough to make the trip and join us for the ceremony. My grandmother is very ill with Dementia and living in Hospice in Ohio and also will not be able to make the trip. The amazing thing is that I am one of the only people that she remembers from our family, as I was her primary caretaker until she moved back to Ohio to go on Medicare in August.

Our wedding will be the dream New Mexico wedding as I have lived here all of my life and have always dreamed of the perfect wedding. Jennifer, growing up as the daughter of a Naval Officer, was never really able to call any one place home, until now. Jennifer decided to attend the University of New Mexico because, surprisingly, on her long list of “homes” she had never had the chance to call the Southwest region home. Over the four years of undergraduate Jennifer fell in love with the Land of Enchantment and, of course, the red and green chile did not hurt at all. Her love for her alma mater is as strong as ever and could be seen when she was crowned the UNM Homecoming Queen in 2007 for her dedication and love for the university campus, students and staff. Jennifer wants her family and friends from all over the world whom cannot attend a New Mexico wedding to have the chance to see amazing photographs of our wedding so that they too can see the beauty with which she has fallen in love.

With her father, Admiral Wren, stationed in Tokyo, Japan planning the perfect New Mexico wedding without her mother is proving to be a near impossible task for my fiancé. Photos would also be an opportunity for her family abroad to remember and share, not only in the land of enchantment, but the enchantment that will be August 7, 2009 forever.

ADDENDUM:

Jennifer just thinks that I am writing the essay and doesn’t know anything about this addendum. With her still in graduate school pursuing her Master’s Degree and me just out of college, money is tight and we are definitely doing this wedding on “a shoestring”. We have had to sacrifice some of our dream wedding to make it possible this year before I go to law school in the fall of 2009. Photography is the last step in our wedding and we have been searching through all of the photographers in Albuquerque, it is very important to her. We have met with some and really like most of their work. However, every night I catch her sitting next to her textbooks browsing your website and your blog. She absolutely loves your work as, of course, do I and we would love to have this opportunity to share the most important day of our lives with everyone in our lives through such amazing photographs.