E. Claire Photography: My happily ever after

The past year and a half has been a whirlwind. In June of 2013 I got a new phone and was going through my contacts to see who I should pass my new number onto. I bypassed Joe the first time, but when I checked the list twice I decided to shoot him a text. We had gone on a few dates in the fall of 2012 but it didn't work out. I started dating another guy and Joe had moved to San Francisco. It started out with a text or two back and forth every other week then it turned into more than once a week. Then by August we were texting all the time. He would text me good morning and good night. I looked forward to hearing about how his day went. Then in October we started calling each other. Then one day Joe told me he was planning to come to Utah for Thanksgiving. At this point it was more of he was a really awesome friend, yeah the thought crossed my mind that it could become more but I wasn't sure. Don't get me wrong I was way excited to see him. Ask Kelsey and Amber, I couldn't stop talking about it. On November 23rd around 8;30 pm I got the text, Hey I'm finally here. Want to come over? I replied Yes! but on the inside I was freaking out! I hadn't seen him for almost a year. My mind was going 1000 miles a minute. Yeah we'd been talking and texting but that's different...actual face to face interaction. Not gonna lie, when I got there it was awkward! We hugged and I went inside. There were lots of people there. His old roommates, friends he grew up with. It was a bit overwhelming. We all talked and ate food. Then someone suggested watching a movie. We sat next to each other on the couch, awkwardly. If either of us moved we'd touch. So we sat there all sorts of stiff for most of the movie. We were sharing a blanket and I found out later he was trying to hold my hand, Oops missed that one! I wanted to go for it but was nervous Joe was only going to be in town for 2 weeks and then he was headed back to San Francisco. I had been in a long distance relationship before and it was hard. We had our first kiss November 26th. We started officially dating November 29th. On December 3rd I knew I loved Joe, I told him the following day after he said that he loved me. Pretty much the rest is history.

He liked it so he put a ring on it. May 17, 2014