Cameron and Lindsay are undergraduate sweethearts who met during freshman orientation in the summer of 2012 at Christopher Newport University in Newport News, VA. They spent hot days and long nights texting and talking , eager to find out more about the other. On the first day of freshman move-in Cameron asked Lindsay out and it's been love ever since! They are Marvel Studios fanatics and make it a point to see every new release as the Avengers (2012) was their first date.

By mid 2018, Cameron and Lindsay had been dating six years, living together for a year, and were fully committed to one another. Even though Lindsay's suggestions about proposing were only playful jabs, Cameron was very much considering the real thing. Unfortunately, Cameron and Lindsay like their lives full of indulgences and other "treat yo self" goodies. As such, the budget for an engagement ring was not exactly large. To find out what she liked and to buy himself time, Cameron had Lindsay make him a Google Slides presentation completely about the different types of rings Lindsay prefers. However, that is only what Cameron told Lindsay...

Sneaky Cameron already had a ring in mind and already had it mostly ready. The ring that Cameron was going to use was a family heirloom that originally belonged to his Great-grandmother, but it needed a decent amount of work. To read about the history of the ring(s), please see the next story.

By the time the engagement ring was ready, it was now summer 2019, in late June to be specific. Almost another calendar year had passed since Cameron began this slow and delicate process, and coupled with a stressful work year, both were needing a vacation.

Cameron and Lindsay decided to go up to Washington D.C. to view the National Mall, the Smithsonian Museums, and a host of other historical treasures because although she was born and raised in Gloucester, VA, Lindsay had never been to the nation's capital. Instead of the typical eighth grade field trip to D.C., Lindsay and her classmates took a lovely trip to the local dump/landfill.

Cameron thought that this trip would be the perfect time and place for a proposal, but time was of the essence, as the young couple had booked a few nights at the famous (or infamous) Watergate Hotel in mid July. By pure luck and the power of Google, Cameron found a highly-rated engagement and wedding photographer to book that worked with Cameron to find the best spot on the Mall in order to propose. He quickly booked the photographer and confirmed the agreed upon date, time, and location: Tuesday, July 16th, 2019 at around 9:00 a.m. at the bottom of the Lincoln Memorial at the waters edge of the Reflecting Pool. The stage was now set, and the only thing that remained was to count down the clock and pray to God that Lindsay didn't get wise.

The morning of the proposal, to Cameron's relief, the forecast was a bright and sunny day. The sun shown through the hotel room windows and promised that rain would not fall on this special day. What the sun demanded in return however, was that it be allowed to make the day as hot and humid as it could. Cameron and Lindsay set out for their first big day of sightseeing at approximately 8:00 a.m., t-minus one hour to liftoff. Cameron, thinking himself clever, wanted to take Lindsay to the Jefferson Memorial first to throw her off his scent, if she expected a proposal. After admiring the jacked statue of Thomas Jefferson, which in no way parallels the real man, Cameron and Lindsay took an Uber to the proposal destination. Texting the photographer who was ready and lying in wait, but suddenly, a wrench in the plan! That morning right outside the Lincoln Memorial, U.S. Marines were practicing for the Sunset Parade that they hold on Tuesday evenings during the summer months. This caused a serious problem, as it would look tacky and even disgraceful to propose behind the Marines practicing for a time honored tradition. The photographer assured Cameron that the Marines were finishing up, and encouraged him to stall Lindsay until they were done. So, Cameron took Lindsay on a very, very, slow tour of the Lincoln Memorial and all the "very interesting" and not at all boring small tidbits of trivia that he definitely knew and didn't Google five minutes before.

Exhausting his resources, Cameron began to lead Lindsay out of the Lincoln Memorial to watch the Marines finish up their practice. After a few minutes Lindsay started to get impatient. "Can we go?", Lindsay groaned. If it was any other morning, Cameron would have eagerly agreed, because while it was appealing performance, it was already 9:05 a.m. and close to 95 degrees Fahrenheit with the humidity index, and the couple had a full day of sightseeing ahead of them.

"Uh, not yet, they're finishing up, see?", Cameron stumbled out, sweating not only from the sweltering weather but the butterflies in his stomach. After the final trumpet finished playing, the Marines began walking away from the Lincoln Memorial, and the crowd that had gathered for the performance began to dissipate. "Hey, let's go down to the Reflecting Pool. It's a good view of the Memorial and the Washington Monument," Cameron said, his best on the fly reasoning for taking the many steps down to the water when a perfectly good pathway was right next to them.

They made their way down to the water's edge, which was thankfully empty, the photographer following closely behind but not too close. Cameron and Lindsay admired the view for a moment, Cameron got down on one knee, pulled out the ring box....

......and Lindsay, thinking he was pranking her, rolled her eyes and turned to walk away. "No wait! Lindsay! This is real!" Cameron yelled, thinking his photographer, and any passerby, was catching a viral hit video of "top ten proposal fails" on his or her cameras.

Fortunately, once she understood that this was indeed real, Lindsay quickly said yes, swiped the ring from Cameron and put it on her finger herself, unaware that the man is supposed to gently and tenderly slip the ring on the lady's finger.

While the picture below does not capture the panicky essence of the day up until that point, nor all the planning and fly by wire changes leading up to the proposal, it does encapsulate the love between the bride and groom, and in Cameron's opinion, is the storybook way in which he chooses to remember that morning.

jk, love you Lindsay, wouldn't have it any other way.

If you read up until this point, aren't asleep, and are looking for a wedding or engagement photographer of your own, I highly recommend Jon Fleming, whose website can be found here.

The engagement ring and the wedding ring were both originally purchased back in 1901 by Cameron's great-grandfather.