Carly and Matt. I have so many words for these two lovebirds. I was going to save this love story for their wedding blog post but since their wedding has yet to happen (fall hurry up!) but I feel it is appropriate now because they’re the real deal. They’re everything I imagine my couples like. Their story is like this…Well… Honestly, Carly’s story about how they met tells it best. So here it goes:

“During Matt’s spring break of 2014 visiting his friends in Chicago we met at the Empty bottle.

Matt was out with his friends and doing what you do at The Bottle: drink a lot. And Carly was also doing what’s done at The Bottle: drink more. Carly and her friends were standing at the bar talking about whether or not it’s weird for women to walk up to guys and ask them if they want a drink; essentially if role reversal in 2014 was acceptable or not. After too many Tecates, Carly’s best friend Catie decided that they needed a third, and male, opinion. She reached behind Carly and tapped on the shoulder of a guy who was closing out his tab, and standing 1 foot from Carly.

“Excuse me,” Catie said, “but I need you to settle something for us…”

Matt turned around and saw Carly. Carly looked at Matt while her internal dialogue was thinking, “sup…you’re a babe. Now be cool” they introduced one another and talked about music, food, how terrible Taking Back Sunday’s new album was, and finally asked: “so, where do you live?”

Matt said he lived in San Diego, which wasn’t a neighborhood in Chicago that sounded familiar until sobriety kicked in and reality of 2,000 miles settled in shortly after and the future seemed glum.

However, Matt got her number and pursued her constantly – which Carly obviously didn’t mind. With 1 year of long distance and bi-monthly visits to see each other, Matt finally moved to Chicago in June, 2015. Matt proposed in England on Christmas with all of my family there and gifted me my Nana’s 74 year old engagement ring.”

Fast forward to now, I’ve photographed that best friend Catie’s wedding this past fall (blog coming soon!), Carly and Matt live happily in Logan Square with their dogs (which one of them I met on our first consultation, the second on our shoot), their wedding is this coming September and it’s currently scheduled as my last of 2017 (that will likely change) and it’s going to be killer. Ovation, Motown, Chinese food and some incredible people who I have had the pleasure of photographing over the years. Telling you I can’t wait is really an understatement. I really can’t wait.