The decision to do our engagement photos in Farmville, Virginia--the little town where Rob and I both went to college--was an easy one. This is where we met (five years ago this month!); where we became friends before falling in love.

We shot in three different locations, and the first was Longwood University, where I read and wrote every day, learned countless things about literature and life, drank cheap vodka, dated a few of the wrong guys, spent every minute and shared every dress with my roommates, and the place I called home when I first crossed paths with the man who will soon be my husband.

 Longwood means so much to me.

  

  

    

These photos were taken by Ashley Link of V.A. Photography, whom I cannot recommend enough. She is talented and creative and kind, and Rob and I are so excited to have her shoot our wedding in May. 

Stay tuned for Part Two next week!

(Outfit Details: I'm wearing a ModCloth dress and shoes c/o Jigsaw London. 

Rob's wearing a Banana Republic shirt and pants with Johnston & Murphy shoes.)

It's that time of year when I wake up with a shiver, giddy over the chill in the air and that smell of autumn that may or may not exist outside of my own imagination. I put on a scarf or a sweater, make coffee, and proceed to ignore the afternoon as it warms up, because it's still summer, but I'm ready for it to be fall.

I was running this morning and it was a damp and comfortable 60 degrees, but the sun was shining on parts of the sidewalk and I thought about how amazing it is that I could be running in Virginia (in Farmville or Roanoke or Charlottesville), or I could be running in Minneapolis, and although I am not the same person I was seven years ago, I can feel almost exactly the same at this moment that I did at that moment.

I made a turn on a new loop and was surprised by the smell of coffee coming from a shop on the corner. The coffee shop is right by our apartment building, but looking at it from a different angle; coming at it from a different street, startled me. It looked different, and I felt disoriented. I'm still getting to know my new neighborhood.

It reminded me of the time my old roommate Caroline, our friend Maggie, and I sat on the steps of a building on Longwood's campus before classes started our freshman year. I remember the cold roughness of the cement steps and the sort of horizontal platforms that jutted out on either side, and how later, one afternoon, I walked past that building on my way to something like I always did and realized that it was the same place we had sat that late summers night, weeks before.

I have moved almost every year since starting college in 2006, and each time, it has been at the end of a summer. August awakens a nostalgia in me, and I want to start over in some way every time autumn nears.

The promise of unfamiliar corners becoming ordinary fixtures is something I like. Settling in feels good.

My little brother graduated from college this weekend.

I stayed at Sean's apartment on Friday night and got to Wheeler Mall early on Saturday morning to save some seats for me and my parents. As people milled about, hugging and buzzing excitedly, with orchestra music playing over the sound system, I couldn't help but get a little emotional. Longwood is really the place where I started to become the person I am today, and it was such a joy to share that one year on campus together with my brother before I graduated just three years ago. 

It was a special place for me, and a special place for Sean, and a special place for me and Sean.

On Sunday, I went to upload photos from my dad's camera, where we took all the family shots, and realized that we had left the memory card in Roanoke. So we did what any normal family would do, and made Sean put his cap and gown back on.

Rocky got in on it, too.

Congratulations, Class of 2013.

And happy belated Mother's Day to all you moms out there.

I know ours enjoyed having both of her babies in one place (and double flowers).