An Engagement Story: Emily & Ethan

Emily and Ethan make up one of those couples you meet that leaves you thinking that two people could not be better suited for each other. They are both tall, blond, and make a striking pair when you see them on the street. More than that, though, their personalities so clearly complement one another that you can almost picture the puzzle pieces fitting together. I sat down with them to talk about how getting set up with the wrong person actually brought them together, the funny story behind their engagement, and their sweet photo shoot with Alexandria’s own amazing photographer, Erin Tetterton...  Meaghan: First things first: How did you two meet? Ethan: We met at a chili cookout that my roommates and I put together on an annual basis. I was living in Del Ray at the time and happened to invite my roommate Justin’s coworker to the party. As it turned out, she didn’t want to come alone so she brought Emily with her... Emily: Well, she didn’t want to go to the party alone because she had been told by Ethan’s roommate Justin that he wanted to set her up with someone at the party so she was nervous about being by herself. Understandable! I really, really didn’t want to go to this thing though because, despite it being a holiday weekend, I had work the next day and really didn’t want to make the trek out to these random people’s chili thing. But, I went, and as we starting meeting these guys all of them were introduced with their girlfriends except this last one: Ethan. Clearly he was the one my friend was going to be set up with, which was disappointing because I actually thought he was really cute! Meaghan: That’s so funny! So, you meet this handsome guy who is sort of unofficially spoken for… Emily: Right, I even texted another friend to see if there was any way to intervene without being a jerk, but I decided to just leave it alone and let it go.  Ethan: I was immediately drawn to Emily but I actually thought she was spoken for already because she was wearing a ring on her left ring finger. Throughout the party, though, we ended up chatting a lot and I realized that this ring was just a decoy ring… Emily: It’s not a “decoy” ring! It just fits on that finger...(laughs) Ethan and I ended up talking a lot at the party and I just thought he was great. At the end of the night, though, he didn’t ask for my number and I figured, “oh, well, he must be into Anina (my friend) anyway.” I was definitely disappointed but, again, didn’t want to butt in. Ethan: Well, after the party I knew I wanted to get in touch with Emily. I actually hadn’t known that I was supposed to be set up with Anina so I asked a mutual friend to ask her for Emily’s number. Anina evidently did not want to date me either and was completely fine with the situation, so she asked Emily if she could give me her number. Emily said yes, and I took her to Old Ebbitt Grill for our first date. Meaghan: Ha, that was a complicated way to meet! Cupid’s arrows were flying in the wrong direction, but somehow everything worked out. Obviously there was an immediate connection. What drew you to each other initially? Ethan: I mean, obviously she’s tall and beautiful -- she was very noticeable when she came into the room. From there, as we started talking I quickly picked up upon her intelligence and confidence, which definitely drew me in. I could tell she was smarter than me, which I liked. I was a little intimidated, to be honest, but in a good way.  Emily: I think for me it’s just that Ethan is so nice. He’s just so pleasant to be around. There are people who just go through the motions in social interactions but Ethan has this genuineness about him where when he asks you questions you can tell he actually wants to know the answers. That sounds so basic but I’ve dated many other people who aren’t like that. He was actually interested in me, he’s interested in the people he meets. To me that was really important. Meaghan: So you have been dating for almost four years. What made you decide you wanted to get married? Ethan: I just felt like it was time to make the next move. For a few months the idea would come up and we would both be like, “Oh, we’re going to spend the rest of our lives together, right?” Just little mentions about what we were going to do with our lives and how we were going to build our decisions together. These little moments eventually just triggered this sense of “OK, I want to do this” for me. It just felt very natural. There was no timeline other than that the timing felt right. Emily: (laughing) You were also probably sensing the profound insecurities I was feeling at the time towards my mere existence. I was working full time and in graduate school in a grueling program and I just had no sense of where my life was leading, professionally speaking. It was a really difficult period for me, but I always felt like Ethan has been my constant and I knew I wanted him there in the future, whatever that was going to be. I was honestly also surprised that anyone would want to marry me after living with me, but I was thrilled that he seemed to want to! Meaghan: Before getting engaged, did you know what you wanted for a ring? Emily: I knew some parts of it, yes. I had seen Emily Weiss’ ring (of Glossier fame) and really liked that she had a horizontally set marquise; however, hers was a diamond and I knew for sure that I did not want a diamond. I had very strong feelings about that, just a personal sense that a diamond did not feel like the right choice for me. I wanted something that reflected us and our relationship and wasn’t a “traditional” look.  Meaghan: I know Ethan worked with us directly on the design and it was a surprise for Emily. How did you know what she wanted? Ethan: I knew she didn’t want a diamond but I wasn’t sure where to go from there in terms of narrowing down other options. So one day we were at a café and I casually brought up the topic of gemstones, colors, etc., and we just sort of talked it out.... Emily: Wait, you brought that up on purpose? That was so sneaky! Ethan: Yeah! I tried to be very casual about it. So, from that conversation I knew she liked off-white colors, really light stones, perhaps some peachy-type colors. That’s what I asked Tim to put together for me when I first met with him and specifically thought that a peach sapphire would be right. Tim and I decided to take a look at a morganite as well just to compare the colors and when I saw that stone -- the marquise style morganite -- I just knew it was the right one. I knew she liked the Emily Weiss ring as well, so we referenced the east-west setting but went for a much more minimalist style, and yellow gold which I knew she preferred.  Emily: Yes. I love it. Honestly if I had been consulted on this process I would have been like, “I have no idea other than what I do not like.” But when I saw it I was like, “Oh, that’s exactly what I wanted!” Meaghan: Can you tell us how you proposed? Emily: Well, I’ll start because even though it was a surprise, I did suspect it was coming. We had planned a trip to Paris for Thanksgiving and I just knew he was not going to propose there. But, while we were in Paris Ethan kept mentioning to me that we should take a walk on the Mall when we got back home. I was like, “Hmmm… here’s Ethan, who barely plans what he’s having for dinner, let alone a particular walk three weeks in advance. I wonder what this is about.” Meaghan: It’s the age-old story: guy *actually* plans something hoping it would be a surprise, completely foils his surprise by *actually* planning something. Emily: Yes! My suspicions were definitely raised. Sure enough, that Sunday after we returned Ethan woke up and suggested that we go on this walk on the Mall and I just went with it. Ethan: I’ve always thought it would be cool to propose on the Mall and I knew Emily especially loves the war memorial. It’s one of the quieter memorials and it’s quite beautiful. I wanted to take her there and there usually aren’t as many people milling about, but on this particular day there was a girl getting her high school photos taken and of course, she’s right smack in middle of where I wanted to propose. Emily: Honestly, I felt so awkward about being in the middle of this random girl’s high school portrait photos that I just wanted to get out of there. So I was trying to drag him out when he dropped to his knee… Ethan: Emily was so distracted by this girl that she actually punched the ring when I opened the box. I was like, “That isn’t what you’re supposed to do!”  Emily: (laughing) Of course, I said yes. But it was so awkward! All I wanted to do was get out of there. So, we went to Old Ebbitt and had champagne and celebrated. We had so much fun. Meaghan: What a vivid picture! I love it. And speaking of pictures, your photo shoot here in Old Town is beautiful! Tell me about working with Erin Tetterton. Ethan: She was such a professional. She knew exactly what she was doing, where we should go…there were definitely times were I wondered how some of these shots were going to turn out, but once you see the photos you’re like, oh, I get it, you were right, Erin. Emily: Yes, Erin was fantastic. She was super approachable and accommodating and I felt comfortable the whole time, which is not an easy feat for me when I’m getting my photo taken. I absolutely love our photos and I’m so glad we had them done. Meaghan: Can you describe your design process in one word? Ethan: Fun. Honestly, Tim just made it so easy in a way that I really didn’t think was possible. I think I’m a creative person overall but it was really nice to have someone take down the barriers to this custom design process and get me to the technical stuff that I felt more comfortable talking about. Sitting with an expert to guide me through this so that I couldn’t completely mess things up was definitely reassuring. Emily: I would just say, go with it. If you suspect something is up, don’t ask questions or try to figure out his or her plan. Just go with it and let them surprise you! Thank you, Ethan and Emily!  

Photography by Erin Tetterton Photography