It was such a gorgeous day when Shannon met Jamie and Nate up in Sedona for their Sedona engagement session! They had already met at Starbucks a few months earlier and talked for over 2.5 hours together as they went over wedding plans and how they met and just hit it off great! We always love to get out of Phoenix and get some new scenery and surroundings for a couples’ engagement session, so when we found out that Sedona had a really special place in Jamie and Nate’s memories we knew we just had to do it there! Jamie and Nate we are so excited for your Villa Siena Wedding this fall! Thank you for letting us capture this special time in your relationship as you plan out your perfect day and become husband and wife! All our best, Shannon and the Studio girls

Also we just LOVE this proposal story and have to share it:

“The proposal was definitely a surprise! Nate and I had been talking for several months about getting engaged and I had so many people ask me about when it was going to happen. We had gone ring shopping and had talked a lot about it, but I really had no clue when it was going to happen. At first I wanted to know everything, but then I decided to just put it in God’s hands and knew that it would happen when the timing was right. A few months had gone by and Nate had asked me if we could go visit my family in November. I thought it was somewhat of a random request, but then remembered that I had asked him to get my parents’ blessing, so I figured he was going to ask them then and then propose in December as we were taking a trip to Maui. October came and Nate asked me what I wanted to do one Saturday night and I told him that I wanted to go to Carefree to see the Enchanted Pumpkin Garden. He said “let’s go,” so we went up and had a wonderful time looking at the pumpkins and taking in the fall beauty (as a side note, we are both October babies, so this is our favorite time of the year). He then took me out to a really nice restaurant and as we started to drive home, he wanted to know if it would be fine if we stopped at the Boulders. We had only been there once before, but it was one of my all-time favorite dates, so I just figured Nate wanted to stop by since we were in the area. Of course, this was his plan all along  He ended up driving in and parking his car and asked me to wait inside as he wanted to get the door for me. He then opened the door and asked me to get “something” out of his middle console. I opened it up and saw the ring box, but then thought, there is no way this is happening right now. I turned around and there he was, down on one knee and asked, “Will you marry me?” I just started to cry my eyes out as I was filled with so much joy and jubilation as this was one of the best moments in my life. I told him, “Yes!” and gave him a hug and a kiss. It was just the best and I wish I could relive that moment as it was better than I could have ever imagined! After all of that happened, I asked him…so I thought you were going to ask my parents in November and he laughed and told me that was a story that he made up so that I couldn’t figure out what he was up to. I later found out that he drove all the way out to California when I was away on a work trip and asked for my parents’ blessing in person. That was the icing on the cake as it was so special to me that Nate had listened to me and made sure that my family was involved.” – Jamie

“ The first time we said I love you was in Sedona. We had gone hiking around slide rock and were having a wonderful day. When we got to a random boulder we climbed up it and sat for about half an hour. After about 10 minutes of sitting on the rock Jamie was starting to get anxious like she had to tell me something. Jamie then told me that she loved me, and that I was her “rock”. My response to her was …”I know”.” – Nate

“So I would say there are two “first kiss” stories….the technical one would have been on our second date. Nate knew I loved country music and took me to a Trace Adkins concert. After the concert, we sat down by this outdoor fire pit and talked for a few hours. Nate then walked me back to my car and went in to hug me and give me a kiss on the cheek. I thought he was going for the lips, so we may have slightly “missed” on our first kiss. Oops! We still laugh about it until this day and he loves to give me a hard time about how I was the one who made the first move. What I like to consider our first kiss would be on our third date, which was Valentine’s Day. Nate had made us reservations at North and we both got dressed up and had a lovely dinner together. I would say this date was one of my all time favorites as we connected on a deeper level and talked about all sorts of things, from faith to family and even shared funny stories. We talked for about three hours and Nate asked me if I wanted to walk around the city with him. We ended up finding this alleyway (romantic, huh?) and had an incredible first kiss. It was so much fun and just thinking about it makes me feel giddy again!” -Jamie

“My favorite thing about my fiancé is that she loves a good corny joke. She can make a pun out of anything, and will some times refer to a funny joke as a ”punny” joke. How do you make a Kleenex dance… you put a little boogie in it!”- Nate

“ I think what makes our relationship work so well is that I am an introvert and Jamie is an extrovert. In our relationship when one person is talking the other person is always listening. I can go and meet a new person and exchange a few words. When Jamie meets someone new she talks to them as though they have been best friends for years.” – Nate

“ It’s so hard to pinpoint one exact moment that I knew Nate was “the one,” but I would say that about three months into our relationship, I knew that I loved him more than I had ever loved anyone else. He was someone I couldn’t imagine my life without and if I wasn’t with him, I was thinking about him, or probably gushing about him to my friends and family. I knew how much I loved him and it was getting harder and harder to tell him goodbye without saying those three incredible words. I remember in May of 2016 we took a trip to Sedona and we went hiking. We ended up climbing up on this beautiful red rock and we just sat there together talking and enjoying each other’s presence. It was so perfect and I looked at him and told him, “I love you.” It felt so great to tell him how much I cared about him and took our relationship to a whole other level. That was such an incredible moment and one I will remember forever!” -Jamie