{Engagement} Danielle & Charles

I don't have that many engagement sessions yet on the blog as of yet, so I super excited to share this one. It's soooooo cute! Seriously, the paper airplanes, suitcases, and the globe - adorable!! Whitney of Whitney Huynh Photography grew up in a small town in Nebraska and now lives in Atlanta, GA. The military is something very close to her heart as her husband was in the Air Force for the first 4 years she knew him and they were separated almost the entire duration of their engagement. She has worked with organizations such as Operation Love Reunited and Wish Upon a Wedding which you can read more about on the INFO page of this blog.

Even more exciting is that Danielle & Charles have shared their very unique and romantic love story in this Q & A.

How did you meet?
Danielle: We met in December 2011 at the wedding of a mutual friend. I had gone to middle school and high school and church with the groom and Charles knew him from the Air Force Academy. Or so we thought. We sat next to each other at the reception and in our conversation learned that we had "met" back in August 2005. He was among the MANY cadets I met while out at the Air Force Academy with my dad (who is also an AF Academy grad) visiting our mutual friend whose wedding we we meet at again over 6 years later. We chatted and danced and at the end of the evening, asked for my phone number. I gave it to him, thinking to myself that there was no way I was ever going to hear from him again. I mean, I live in Georgia and he lives in Arizona! But I was wrong. He used my number the very next evening to wish my Happy New Year and we've talked almost every day since.

Charles: On the night we met I never thought that I would meet my future spouse at a wedding. I hoped I might meet a pretty girl. I didn't expect to meet my wife. But I was very pleased when I found myself seated next to a very pretty girl at the wedding reception. She asked me if I knew the groom from the Academy and when I said yes, she told me about her visit during my freshman year. My friend's mother, Danielle and her father had come out for our class's graduation from basic training and our acceptance into the cadet wing. The four of them made what looked like a family group and so throughout the day, all of the cadets that approached Danielle had the same two questions: "are you Andrew's sister?" immediately followed by "are you Andrew's girlfriend?" As Danielle shared this story with me, I immediately realized that I had asked those same two questions and that I had met this girl years before, which I immediately exclaimed to her. I can honestly say, I have never enjoyed dancing as much as I did that evening. I was thrilled when I left that evening with her number and as we drove away from the country club, my friends congratulating me on scoring a phone number, I remember saying that I really hoped something would come out of it, despite the unlikelihood of us every getting a chance to see each other again. 

We spent a lot of time during the early days of our relationship discussing how crazy it seemed that we had met each other at a wedding and that not only were we still talking to one another from the other side of the country; we also seemed to be rapidly falling for each other. The phrase "this doesn't happen in real life" was stated often and still creeps into conversation from time to time. For both of us, our romance seemed more like the plot of a chick flick than something that could actually happen. 

Danielle: Although we met in Dec. 2011, we didn't actually see each other in person again until May 2012. However, Skype is a beautiful thing and we're both grateful for that time we had to do nothing but talk and get to know each other. 

Charles: Now, a little over a year later, the beautiful girl who I so enjoyed chatting and dancing with is now my fiancé and our wedding reception is being held at the same country club where we first shared a laugh and a dance together. Despite being on opposite ends of the country and at times opposite ends of the world (I proposed to Danielle when I returned from 3 months in Afghanistan) we have only grown closer to one another. I proposed December 28, 2012 while we were ice skating in my home town in Michigan. My parents hid and took some pretty great pictures of that, so we've got all sorts of awesome pictures. 

What is your connection to the military?

Danielle: My dad went to the Air Force Academy and served in the AF for his required number of years after graduating. However, he had been out of the AF a while before he even met my mom so the military was never a big part of our lives. Charles is an AF Academy grad who is currently stationed at Davis-Monthan in Tucson, AZ. He is a pilot and flys EC-130s.

Who thought of this adorable photo session ?

Danielle: I live in Peachtree City, GA and these photos were taken at the Dixie Wing of the Commemorative Air Force at Falcon Field in our little town. That's where the picture were taken. We saw some pictures with the planes there while looking into using the hangar as a reception venue. We're not using it for the reception but we both completely loved that photo idea. Whitney worked her magic and deserves the credit for how fabulous the pictures turned out. Seriously. She's the best photographer. I mean, she folded all those paper airplanes. Epic.

Do you have a wedding date set or have you already gotten married?

We're getting married May 18, 2013. So excited!

Was this your engagement session?

It was our engagement session and I don't think either of us have ever had more fun taking pictures. Charles loved getting to see the old planes and I loved how into it he was. He had even gone online before the shoot and searched for shots he wanted us to try. Gotta love an involved groom!

Anything else you want to add?

Charles: It's has definitely not been the easiest road, but it has been so worth it, and I can honestly say I am the luckiest man on Earth. (SWOOOON!)

Thank you Whitney for sharing their adorable photos and best wishes to the lovely couple on their wedding day!