She said "Mhmm"

I'm not sure if you have ever heard the stereotype that military couples tend to "move fast" - well, we fit this stereotype for sure. We left off with his return home after a long 11-month deployment (that he actually enjoyed very much).

Fast forward just four months and you would find him, down on one knee with a ring more gorgeous than I could have dreamed up and a promise of forever together. If I knew I loved him after two short weeks I'm sure you can imagine that after four months spent together, when he "popped the question"...

Well, in all honesty I believe my response (after putting the ring on myself, which I thought implied HECK YES!) was more of an "mhmmm" rather than "yes". Either way, it's all the same in my opinion and I will soon (six months from now!!!) be marrying the only man I could ever imagine committing the rest of my life with!

And take a look at this beauty!

If you have spent a reasonable amount of time on Pinterest (or an obsessive, life-consuming amount of time like I tend to do) you have probably seen rings similar to this one - this is where I found the pictures I showed him. Actually, when discussing rings I sent him 6 or 7 pictures of rings I really liked and had him rate them to see if his taste matched up with mine. We both had the same favorite, yay! I wanted nothing to do with picking out my ring, that is something I wanted to come from him. Honestly, I would have loved anything that he picked out but this just went above and beyond anything I could have ever imagined! I'm so in love with this ring and I still find myself amazed at how shiny and gorgeous it is - he has to listen to it all the time, but at least he knows I am super grateful, right?

Did my man deliver or what?!

Anyways, on with the pictures. Here is just a small compilation of my most favorite pictures from our first engagement shoot.

 We added a few "military themed" pictures, at my request, which I love!

 Another fun little thing we did in the following few pictures was added a personal touch to an old building that occupies the land at my mom's house. This building has been a fascination of mine since I was little. My cousins and I would always try to sneak in and take a look at everything while growing up. I of course wanted to get some pictures in this cool place and thought it would be a neat idea to hang some old pictures of our grandparents and other family members on the wall behind us.

 One other thing, that wasn't my idea but Rick's, that I am so SO glad we did was incorporating the actual date that we got engaged into a couple pictures. It is one of those things you think you will remember since it is obviously a pretty significant time in your lives, but for me at least, this didn't hold true. So much happens and the date seems to slip away. I am grateful to have this wonderful reminder and I encourage anyone who gets engaged to jot the date down somewhere you will always be able to find it because if you are like me, no matter how much you try to remember, you won't. Unless you're like my best friend and get engaged on a significant date like 11-11-11.

 One other photo, which I think is funny because it's totally true, is this one

Yep, "we met on Facebook"

This was actually a pack of gum I found on some gag gift website and couldn't resist buying it for him for Christmas. I don't think anybody ever opened the pack or chewed the gum, but it made for a good little photo prop. That's another tip I will throw out there, make your pictures relate to you and your story. Don't get stuck in the rut of doing generic, posed pictures. Even in an awesome setting they won't hold as much meaning as pictures that show who you truly are as a couple. And have fun with it!! Our photo shoots have always been so relaxed, as we have never hired a professional photographer, but I have loved our results as much as if we had.

And, as promised, here is the first example of a picture where I look totally amused...but him? Not so much.

As if this hasn't been enough of "us" crammed down your throat, there are plenty more pictures from follow up photo shoots which I will also force feed you, shall you choose to return and read on in the days to follow!