"I've got halo's made of summer,

Rhythms made of spring

I got crowns of words a woven

Each one a song to sing."

brooke fraser | something in the water

--

I had only e-mailed Whitney a few times,

and she was a girl who knew what she wanted.

A sunrise engagement,

with the pretty light,

at the Tidal Basin,

with the cherry blossoms.

That was that.

So early Sunday morning (my alarm clock definitely went off at 4:30 am),we met at the break of dawn.

The kind of dawn that is muted, and a tad chilly.

The kind of dawn that is still grey,and rubbing it's eyelashes while it wakes up.

And this bombshell,with her sweet, architecture-major fiancee' hit the day running, with smiles, light and joy.

Whitney and John started dating last January,and got engaged a few weeks ago.And it was adorable

While we waited for our sparkly yellow light,Whitney + Jon told me their engagement story.

"I wanted to ask her before dinner,so that I would be able to enjoy dinner and not have that on my mind.But it ended up not working out.So it was on my mind all dinner."

Whitney piped in "And I figured if he was going to ask,it would be at dinner! So when it didn't happen,I convinced myself that it wasn't happening tonight."Typical ;)

After a few mis-haps,John ended up taking her to a special place in the city,with all the stunning DC lights illuminating the night.

"He was kissing me - which is very typical -and he pulled away and...asked me a question! I said yes yes yes!"

You're not getting the full effect of how sweet it was,because you aren't hearing Whitney describe it.Or watching John watch her describe it.

She's a firework.A brilliant, excitable, contagious woman.He's a fire stone.Solid, warm, strong.

They literally danced and sung and laughed their way through DC.

There were actually a handful of other couples,getting their engagement pictures done at the same time.

As we passed them,and I saw the awkward body-language,heard the awkward silence,felt the unease,I was so stinkin' grateful I was shooting these two ;)