Josh and Amanda are Engaged | Cobourg, Ontario

Last weekend I met up with Josh and Amanda for their engagement shoot in Cobourg. After securing a ‘back-up plan’ in fear of the rain, we were blessed with sun and beautiful weather and the most AMAZING FOG rolling in off the lake!! We had too much fun and laughed hard. Josh and Amanda will get married in April 2012 and I asked if they could share ‘their’ story with me. I love hearing a couple’s story and even more I love letting the couple tell ‘their’ story so I will…

I’m sure most people fill this page with a romantic story that ends in a dreamy proposal. That story however, does NOT describe us in the slightest.

Our story begins nine years ago when we met at bowling. Bowling, for Josh and I was just a constant string of jabs and insults. Since we both went to the West, almost daily at lunch we saw each other which generally resulted in one insult or another. This of course usually caused my face to flame six shades of scarlet, which also generally resulted in mocking from my friends.

When Josh left the West for Ottawa, we talked occasionally over MSN but when our sisters Jennifer and Cassandra graduated grade eight, we ran into each other. After each having a grandmother go missing we started talking while searching for them. That night we headed out for coffee (after much encouraging from one of my friends) and for a walk. This walk was the first of many that we took over that summer. These walks usually resulted in looking at cars at random dealerships in Cobourg, walking down at the harbor and coffee.

When I moved to Belleville, Josh began coming to visit me there. This continued on for a LONG time (and of course he apparently told NO ONE about this). This continued until I came to Ottawa one summer on vacation with my family and he finally asked me to be his girlfriend. We continued to date while I finished college. When I mentioned that after graduation, I was planning on moving to Ottawa Josh asked if I wanted to move into his apartment. That began a long string of trips between Cobourg and Ottawa with no pee breaks.

2009 and 2010 were good years for us. We had alot of big accomplishes in this time. First, in October of 2009 we got our beautiful boxer puppy Layla. In 2010 after deciding that Layla needed a little more room we moved into our very first home in Kanata. Now here we are in 2011, where the final piece of this story fell into place.

Since I don’t celebrate Valentine’s Day, we had planned to go out for dinner on the Wednesday after it. We went to Milestones and had an excellent dinner. For the few days prior to this, Josh had been bugging me that he had a secret and I had been pestering him to tell me. He finally agreed after we had gotten home and were laying down trying to digest the HUGE amount of food we had consumed. We played 20 questions, which turned to 45…and I still didn’t get it. I had (as usual) left the light at the bottom of the stairs on, so Josh told me to keep thinking and he would go turn it off. When he came back up it was REALLY dark so I couldn’t see anything. I was getting mad at this point, so he told me “Amanda, just turn on the light”. This of course led to a fight (in typical Josh and Amanda fashion). After I finally yelled “FINE!” and turned the light on, I covered my eyes to shield them from the light. I heard Josh laughing and me telling me I was oblivious. I opened my eyes and there was by far the most BEAUTIFUL ring I had ever seen. Now things get a little fuzzy here, I was a LITTLE shocked. I just remember a cheesy one liner and him putting the ring on.

Needless to say, at this point we are very happy and well into planning our wedding.