Photographer: @mintandjasminephoto
Location: Midhope Castle, Scottish Highlands
In their words:
We’re best friends. We know each other better than anyone else in the world—we often know exactly what the other is thinking and end up saying the same thing at the same time. Our favorite place to be is simply together. We share the same dreams and can’t wait to make them a reality—together. And I mean, we truly couldn’t wait: we even went to the courthouse to legally tie the knot because we just couldn’t stand to hold off any longer (though we still plan to have a wedding celebration with our friends and family near and far)!
During long distance, after every visit, we always found ourselves saying, “I can’t wait to do ___ next time,” or “Next time, let’s ___.” One day, Kortney said, “I can’t wait for all the next times with you.” That phrase became our thing—a tiny promise woven into every goodbye and every plan.
Matthew
We started as work friends in Dallas years ago, but then Kortney moved across the country to D.C. We stayed connected as social media friends until she visited Dallas a couple of years later, and that’s when a true friendship grew—and eventually turned into a relationship that somehow thrived across 1,500 miles. We managed to see each other every three months at first, and then every month toward the end as living apart became increasingly unbearable. I was ready to move to D.C., but she decided to move back to Dallas a bit earlier than originally planned. Bringing her and her dog (who is now also one of my greatest joys) home was one of the happiest days of my life so far.
I’d learned that Kortney is drawn to classic, delicate gold jewelry, so when I came across the Matilda ring on KDD’s Instagram, it was as if it were shouting, “This is Kortney!”
I was thrilled to find such a beautiful ring that was ethically sourced, and K&D made the ordering process super easy and answered any questions I had along the way!
Kortney
Matthew did a private proposal in the Scottish Highlands at Midhope Castle, better known as “Lallybroch” to fans of the Outlander TV show. He had reserved two mornings in our 10-day Scotland itinerary for what I assumed were birthday-related surprises, so I had no idea where we were heading until we emerged from some foliage and suddenly, there the castle was! It was especially meaningful because, while we were doing long-distance, Outlander was the show we watched together every evening over FaceTime, coordinating our timing down to the very second.
The photo shoot took place the next day on my birthday, but of course, by then I had learned that it was actually an engagement shoot! Our photographer picked us up from our B&B in Edinburgh herself and drove us to the sites she and Matthew had apparently planned out over the past few months. The landscape was breathtaking—moody skies, intermittent showers and sunshine, a beautiful hike, and dramatic mountains surrounding us. One of our favorite photos was taken in front of “the wee white hut,” which I had sadly (but thankfully, mistakenly!) thought we wouldn’t have time to visit during our trip. The proposal and the shoot were just so incredibly perfect.
