Our Story Part IV - TréCreative Wedding Photography&Videography

Last week, we started a four part blog series about our own story, how Stephen and I met, started dating, and got engaged! We are on week three of this series. If you missed last week's, go ahead and click onthis link to read the first part and then come back to read this section!

OUR STORY PART IV

We left off sharing about our camp adventures at Mount Hermon is the Santa Cruz mountains. We spent three summer there together all while falling more in love and perfecting our craft that would later become our careers as full time photographers and videographers.

It was Stephen's last year at Biola and I still had one more year to go in college. We always knew we wanted to get married, it was just about timing. Right after Christmas time we started talking about going ring shopping. I know some girls don't want anything to do with ring shopping and want to be completely surprised. I liked the idea of being surprised about what my ring looked like, but when it came down to it, I was the one wearing the ring forever and wanted to know what it looked like. That may sound pretty harsh, but I'm so thankful we had gone ring shopping. We knew the jeweler personally and she treated us so well! She literally closed down shop in the middle of the mall and let me try on anything and everything while we visited. We left the shop knowing what I liked and I tried to forget about it ;)

The last couple months leading up to our engagement were not glamorous by any means! Stephen was finishing up school in Southern California and I was still in Chico. We decided to do our first ever bridal show and officially start TréCreative as a business. Stephen would run more full time once college was over. I had spent our last couple of months dwelling on the next steps of our lives. I had a little taste of weddings, but really wanted it to be my turn to be a bride! I was jealous of anyone who was getting engaged, and wanted to fast forward our relationship so we could plan our wedding already! I wasn't always fun to be around and unfortunately our relationship with one another wasn't always the healthiest during that time. I felt like Stephen was never going to propose and even if he was, he could never surprise me because I would obviously see it coming!

Stephen graduated and moved back to Chico. We had one of our very first photography weddings booked in Santa Cruz a couple weeks after and would be heading down a day early to spend time with our camp friends. The whole car ride down, Stephen kept talking about wanting to do a timelapse at the top of Mount Hermon at sunset. I wasn't really loving the idea. I figured since we weren't going back to work at camp that summer that we should try and spend as much time with our camp friends as possible! I did not want to go along with the plan Stephen was trying to create. Without me knowing, Stephen texted my good friend and told her to tell me she had to work late. The plan worked and I agreed to take some photos at sunset after we explored some of our favorite places together around Santa Cruz.

After setting up the timelapse and perfectly framing the photo, Stephen came over and sat next to me. We sat in silence for a few minutes and then began to talk. Stephen proceeded to say how he wasn't really there to take photos. I was totally shocked, not expecting this! He than gave a short speech about how Mount Hermon had been a true launching place to us. A place that we grew closer together, served together and grew closer to God. He said he wanted that mindset to be a reflection of our future and marriage. He got down on one knee and asked me to marry him!!! I was in total shock!! We were in Santa Cruz to photograph a wedding, there would be no way he would propose there right?!? Boy, was I wrong. After doing the happy dance and calling everyone I knew, we headed down to meet up with my good friend who we had planned on hanging out with earlier. Little did I know, but Stephen had planned a surprise engagement party with all our camp friends who could make it! On top of that, when we drove back into Chico, the street was full of Chico friends, he had planned another surprise party for us there as well! He likes to rub it in my face how I said he wouldn't be able to surprise me, and he pulled a triple surprise!

Ten months later, we were married and soon after we were running TréCreative full time together as a husband and wife team! Marriage has been a refining process for us. We've had to let go of old unhealthy habits and create our new normal together. Running TréCreative together has been beyond our wildest dreams. Being business owners is absolutely wonderful, but that's not to say that everyday is easy. It's always totally worth it though! Our life is far from perfect and glamorous and each day we strive to serve each other first and our families and clients to the best of our ability. We hope our story inspires you and gives you a little picture of our life pre-engagement :D