Their Session: Private Residence, NJ

As I prepped for my brother’s intimate, backyard proposal, I caught a glimpse of a sign in our house that reads “All because two people fell in love.” That quote stuck with me as my family and I placed these gorgeous vintage rugs down and lined the space with all the beautiful boho details you’ll see as you keep scrolling. Ambrosia on the Porch, an incredible vintage rental company, helped us bring this vision for a backyard proposal to life with the rugs, wooden divider, lanterns, candles, vintage glassware, dried florals, and more! Coby gave me free rein on crafting this setup to be the perfect spot for him to pop the big question!

It’s always so special getting to photograph couples I know personally, but capturing my own brother and his new fiancé’s love and joy was truly unlike anything I’ve ever experienced! That sign in our house stuck with me for the rest of the day, because I realized that the love we grew up with in our home from my parents is the reason why we could have this moment. My parents fell in love at 17, they built a beautiful life for us, and now we get to expand our family and welcome even more love into our lives. All because two people fell in love.

The Proposal

We had a perfect plan to surprise Rit so she wouldn’t expect a thing! Since we haven’t been able to go to real wineries during the pandemic, my family has been having “Kelner Winery” days at our house. We get a bunch of wine and snacks and just hang out in the backyard day drinking. It’s been a really fun socially-distanced way to bring one of our favorite activities back into our lives. Knowing all of our mutual love of wine, we figured Rit wouldn’t be opposed! 🙂

Coby and Rit were coming home for the weekend, so we told her we were going to have a winery day! Nothing out of the ordinary for our fam. When Coby walked her up to this elaborate setup in our backyard, she said, “Well, this is a little much” because she was fully convinced I had done this for our backyard winery! He tried to guide her down the rugs and she resisted because she didn’t know if stepping on it would ruin it for the winery – so thoughtful!! He had to convince her that it was okay to walk on because the ring was sitting on the table at the end. He had to get her down there!

Funny enough, she stopped to take a photo of what would be the spot she would get engaged in just a few seconds later!

Coby said, “I knew the most important thing to both of us was making sure we had our families around. I wanted it to be an intimate, sweet moment that we could remember forever and it turned out beautiful – even though we were both so nervous that we blacked out everything I said.” Thankfully, their reactions say it all – pure joy and excitement for this next chapter in their lives!!

After he asking her to marry him, we went inside to warm up where she was surprised again by her family and ours all gathered for brunch together waiting for them! We spent the afternoon with both of our families celebrating!

They said, “We are so lucky to have the most beautiful pictures and we can’t wait to print them out and put them in our home!” Ohhh, these two know how to get to their photographer sister’s heart, don’t they?! 🙂

Their Love Story

These two met on a dating app a few years ago and hit it off right away! Their first date was at a local bar for drinks, and Coby accidentally spilled his whole glass of water on her! He said it must have been the butterflies. <3 Somehow, she stuck around after that. They’ve since moved in together in CT where they both work in the medical field. They’ve made such a cozy and beautiful home together, and I can’t wait to see how they use these photos in their apartment!

Coby adores that Rit is always thinking about others before herself. He said, “She takes such great care of me, supports me, and she has been my biggest fan from day one. She is just full of love and happiness and this spreads to everyone she comes in contact with. My days are a million times better with her in them.”

Rit loves how Coby is the most generous, sweet, kind person and always takes care of the people he loves. She said, “He is always positive, supportive, optimistic, and smiling. His laugh is contagious – especially since he can sit for 20 minutes laughing at his own jokes.” Very, very true.

These wine and tapas lovers are always laughing and love any chance they can get to have quality time together. With my brother being a doctor and Rit being a nurse, their schedules are crazy, so they take advantage of any moments they do have together by making the most of them. Regardless, they’re pretty much always going to bed by 9 PM because hello, essential worker life is no joke!

Coby & Rit

Thank you so much for allowing me to be a part of such a special moment in your lives. I’m beyond grateful to have the most incredible brother who I’ve looked up to my entire life, and now a new sister who fits into our family perfectly. We all love you both so much, and we can’t wait for all of the engagement and wedding festivities to begin!! Hope you two loved your dreamy backyard proposal and look back on these images for years to come!! Cheers to the beginning of this new adventure – we’re so happy for you!!! Congratulations! <3

Melting over this backyard proposal?! Come check out one of my BFFs getting proposed to in Princeton, NJ here!