Longwood Gardens Engagement session- Alyssa & Darren

Alyssa and Darren met in their kindergarten class in 1999. How freaking sweet?! Alyssa says, “If only I could go back in time and tell those little ones that they were each other’s soul mate.” They lived down the road from each other and during their freshman year of high school, became best friends. On January 3, 2011 during their junior year of high school, they made it official! “We graduated high school together, went to different colleges and made all efforts to see each other as much as possible.” They are now going on ten years together!! 

“My favorite thing about Darren is how no matter the situation, he can put a smile on my face and make me laugh. He balances me and keeps me grounded, and whenever I feel even the slightest bit of stress peering into my life, there he is putting a record on and grabbing my hand to dance. These little moments mean more to me than I can put into words. Another favorite thing of mine about Darren is how much he loves. He makes sure everything he does in his life has meaning and he loves everyone and everything with his whole heart and I am so incredibly grateful for him. ”

“My favorite thing about Alyssa is that she is full of love. All she ever wants to do is make sure that everyone in her life feels loved and to let them know she’s always there. Another thing that I love is her tenacity, her fearlessness and how she makes everyday seem like a brand new adventure. ”

When it comes to engagement sessions, I love letting the couple pick the location. I want it to mean something to them and hold a special place in their heart. Alyssa and Darren love everything that has to do with plants and nature, so Longwood Gardens was a perfect place for them. We woke up bright and early to get there right when they opened so we could beat the crowds. Longwood is also super close to Terrain, where they’re getting married, so they wanted to make a whole day out of it! 

I LOVE hearing about how couples got engaged. The stories are always so sweet and heartfelt and just fill me with such good feelings every time I hear about them. “Darren truly proposed to me in the most beautiful and memorable way. I never was that girlfriend that gave “rules” of what I wanted with a proposal, I knew that however he did it, it would mean the world to me. I also knew that after almost ten years together, he knew what type of proposals had me in tears and which ones didn’t resonate with me. For me, Darren knew that the one thing that was important to me was that our proposal was intimate, just the two of us and not with crowds of family members running out congratulating us after I said yes”, Alyssa said.  Check out the video below to see how sweet their engagement was!!

“It was November 23, 2018 and I was meeting my sister and mom for brunch and a shopping date. Darren had explained to me that he was also going out to visit his family (not true!), and that we would probably be getting home at the same time. When I arrived back to our home after my day out, I opened the front door to find a path of white roses, candles, and our photos together, chronologically ordered with our kindergarten photo first. There were photos strung up all over the room, and our song “Sea of Love” was playing. Darren was at the end of the path on his knee with a bouquet of roses in his hand. I was in complete shock, and being that I am not an easy person to surprise because I am so snoopy, I was absolutely surprised! I was crying, Darren was shaking and I stayed in that moment forever listening to him talk about how much he loves me and wants to be my husband. He then proposed with the most beautiful ring, one that he drew up and designed on his own. After saying yes, crying, and calling our families (who all knew!) we got ready and Darren took us to Philadelphia where we had private dinner reservations in a wine cellar. The next morning Darren told me to pack a bag and we were spending the weekend in the Catskills in a tiny house, something I have always wanted to do! We packed the car and our pup and headed for the mountains! It was truly the most memorable, intimate, and meaningful engagement weekend and I am so incredibly grateful for all of the love, hard work, and planning that he put into it.”

Since these two have been together for so long, I knew that it would probably be hard for them to answer the question of, “What is your favorite thing to do together?” The list for sure goes on and on! Alyssa said, “We love to cook, go everywhere with our pup Mowgli, curl up on the couch and binge watch shows, spend our days visiting and enjoying Philadelphia.” They also love to travel, Alyssa is actually a travel agent and loves to plan vacations!! They’re always ready to head on their next adventure, and cannot wait until their honeymoon in Italy next year! 

Even though, these two ended up having to reschedule their wedding due to covid, they’re looking on the bright side of it. Alyssa said, “Now that our wedding is moved away from the chaos of what is happening, we finally feel like we can breathe and get excited about our wedding day again. We are beyond excited to finally be husband and wife and be surrounded by all of our closest family and friends. We are so excited to begin this next chapter of our lives together, I have been picturing that moment for almost ten years now and I cannot wait for it to happen. It feels so far away now that we have moved our date, but I know that the time will fly by and before we know it we will be sitting on our couch together, as the Geeter’s, flipping through our beautiful wedding book filled with the memories that Lauren helped capture on our wedding day, and I will cherish those memories and photos forever.”