Fun fact: I don’t love surprises.  (Actually, I don’t like when they happen to me.) But watching the surprise engagement of Carson + Peyton reminds me that I love love LOVE surprises for other people! Especially when they involved diamond rings, love drunk happy tears, and the Avalon Pier in North Carolina.  They were both so stinking happy, and you could feel the genuine excitement…the type that comes from the promise of forever.

Some of my favorite shots of them are the ones of them running on the beach.  It feels like the perfect metaphor for a newly engaged couple.  There is no clear end in sight and no set destination.  Yet, neither person cares, because they are moving together.  Carson + Peyton, I hope you always choose to dance in the waves of your life.  If your future together is anything like this gallery, I have no doubt that you will.

PS:  I’m not the only SEP photographer snapping surprises.  Associate Emily got to photograph a maternity session that turned into a proposal – even Emily didn’t know it was going to happen!  I don’t think she likes surprises either (we’re cut from the same cloth) but even she would admit that this was an exception.