That time that Jess got engaged…

Tuesday was the happiest day of my life.

Okay, maybe that’s a *bit* dramatic, but it was incredibly exciting! Tuesday was just another day, sitting at home, looking at the cat when he made silly noises, watching Say Yes to the Dress and waiting for Steve to get home from work. And then my phone rang.

“Why is Jess calling me? — wait.. Jess is Facetiming me?”

Let’s back up a bit. When I was in college I got a job in retail at the Apple store in Towson. I absolutely loved that job and the people I worked with. It was amazing. Hired at the same time, and attending the same training as me was this girl Jess. She introduced herself at the training to the group, and her “fun fact” was that she didn’t like words that started with the letter “B”. I said loudly (maybe a little too loudly) that that wouldn’t bode well for me, considering my name starts with a B. It wasn’t even an hour later that I realized I already KNEW this girl. We had met briefly years ago. I was glad to be going into this crazy new job at least somewhat knowing someone. The group of us that started at the same time at Apple were really close and we called ourselves the apple seeds. Cheesy, yes, but also adorable. Anyway, it wasn’t long after we had started working there that Jess started hanging out with and not too long thereafter dating Joe– the red headed, bearded genius. I say genius in that that was his job title, don’t get a big head Joe. I mean, he’s a smart dude and all, but let’s not go throwing around the “g” word.

Fast forward now, what, FIVE, SIX YEARS? Of the three of us relevant to this story (Jess, Joe and myself), none of us still work there, but many of our friends still do, and that place has had a bigger impact on our lives than we may ever realize. Strangely enough, Jess and I never ended up really being that close when we worked there together. We were friends, but EVERYONE who worked there was a friend. It was a big, crazy family. But now we’re really close, which is awesome! Jess’ best friend Katie also worked with us at the Apple Store and they weren’t even really that close until after Jess had quit, and now they’re best friends. It’s funny how things work out sometimes.

So Jess and Joe had been together for a long time, and this thing has been a long time coming. Only not really. Joe hasn’t always been keen on the marriage idea. At least not publicly. So that’s why this was EVEN MORE exciting than one of your best friends getting engaged. IT WAS COMPLETELY OUT OF LEFT FIELD! They are in the process of buying a house so I figured if something would happen it would probably be somewhere in this time range but still… completely shocked!

So Tuesday night, my phone rings, it’s Jess, and I’m confused. I answer and I see her face and say HI, WE ARE FACETIMING. Like that isn’t already obvious. She asks what I’m doing, I say watching tv and looking at the cat (it’s true, that’s what I was doing), she says, same, same… and then all of a sudden I notice the ring and the rest is a blur. A very exciting blur.

See? My face looks ridiculous, Jess is wearing a Brea eyepatch, and the ring is sparkly.

Last night, Jess and I went to dinner at Cheesecake Factory to celebrate. I brought my camera so we could get some good photos of this gorgeous ring that she’s waited what feels like forever for. I tried photographing it (with varied success) in the area outside Crate and Barrel but it was dark and the background wasn’t exciting. I also didn’t bring my flash so I had no way to combat the darkness.

So inside Crate and Barrel we went.

These were nice and all (I actually really like the second one, that’s on a shopping basket) but I wanted a better background. So we went to Lilly Pulitzer. The girl at the store thought what I was doing was so cool and was happy to have me photographing in the store!

Lilly made an awesome fun, colorful backdrop and I love how these turned out!

What kind of a weirdo takes ring shots at the mall? Well, apparently this weirdo does.

So that’s the story of that time my friend Jess got engaged. Hopefully it won’t be too long before I get these two awesome people in front of my camera and you can see more of Jess’ face than what’s covered up by eye patch Brea and her blingy hand.