On the 17th of January I left Armidale with a group of friends on my way to a Christian Youth Leadership conference in Katoomba called NextGen. I pulled over and bought some oil as I thought the oil was low. It was. We went on our merry way and I noticed Smoke coming from the engine and the exhaust. We pulled over & called the NRMA to help us out. 5 hours later we were back on the road. They said I put too much oil in the engine. I have no clue about cars. On the 18th of January, we finally got to Katoomba after having to stop in Sydney overnight because of the massive delay. We turned up late to the conference and I had no idea where to go for the first group meeting. I saw a beautiful young lady walking towards me and thought she looked like a friendly soul so I told her I was lost and asked whether she knew where I needed to go. She was very helpful and helped me find exactly where I needed to be. Later in the day me and a few friends decided to head into the city of Katoomba to go to a Cafe. Just as we were about to go, I saw the same girl and asked her if she would like to join us. The girls name was Catherine.

It didn’t take me long to develop an attraction to this girl especially when I kept hearing about all these guys on the same camp that liked her. I decided I’d just back off and let them go. I figured I still had unfinished business with an ex so it was probably wise not to have another girl to think about. So I did my best to ignore her.

On the last day, we were in a rush to leave as I had to come back to photograph a wedding the next day. Just as I was about to leave I saw Catherine talking to my friends. I thought, what the heck I’ll ask her if she uses facebook. She was very eager in her response to let me know how I could find her on fb. I thought, wow this girl is eager I was happy about that.

We both went back to our home towns. Cath lived in Sydney & I lived in Armidale, but had plans to move to Sydney a month or two later.

Then we became fb friends and started communicating through facebook.

Then Cath invited me to a church event that she had organised. It just so happened that I was going to be in Sydney that weekend that it was on. Well that’s what I told her. I was at the Central Coast for my buddy Rayne’s bucks party weekend away and would have to skip half the event to see Cath. Oh how the boys gave me crap about the decision to go. I was constantly heckled for ditching the boys for a girl I barely know.

When I got there, I purposely sat nowhere near Cath. Her identical twin sister Jane (who incidentally is dating a wedding photographer) made room for me to sit opposite Cath at this restaurant and ushered me over. I was trying to play cool. After this we kept talking on the phone & hung out a few more times.

At this point in my life I had absolutely nothing stopping me. I was single & about to move to Sydney in a few weeks and so I just asked her out. That was March 12th, 2010.

Bring it forward to June 12, 2010, exactly 3 months after we started dating. Catherine, my now girlfriend was in Canberra on her Occupational Therapy prac and I decided to go visit her. I handed her a chocolate in the shape of an M. The following day she received an A.. then an R.. then another R..and so on until it spelt out M A R R Y M E.

At this point, it was still a statement and not a question yet. The next morning I picked her up super early and took her back to the place we went on our first date in Cronulla. I had put together a picnic basket with lots of Cath’s favourite foods. I had organised my photographer buddies Matt & Katie to come to Sydney to photograph the proposal as it happened, without Cath knowing they were there photographing us. I pointed them out to her and we ended up making up a story about who these people might be and what they were photographing. Katie became “Nikon girl with Boots” as she was shooting with a Nikon & had some pretty epic boots on.

I made it seem like I was going to propose there by Cronulla Beach, then we simply left and I started driving her home and told her it was just a big tease and that she would have to wait for the proposal.

Then I pulled over on the side of the road out the front of a small handmade chocolate shop called Nina’s that is right near Cath’s place. The time was 8:45am and the shop wasn’t due to open until 9am. I knocked on the door and had preorganised with the owner George to be there & to let us in. He invited us in, let us taste test anything in the store and showed us around the shop. By this time, my friends Matt & Katie were standing in the factory behind the counter dressed up as though they worked in the store & putting together boxes for the chocolates to go in. Then George told us he had something special to show us. He walked out with a treasure chest made of chocolate with a ? on the top of it. He placed it in my hands & I got down on one knee and told Cath, among other things that she was my treasure & I love her and I didn’t even want to spend another day without her in my life and would she please marry me. At this point Matt & Katie have their cameras in hand taking photos & shooting video. Now we can share the story with you

FAQ:
Q. Did she say yes
A. She said yes.

Q. Did I ask her dad?
A. I asked/told her dad. I didn’t want to give him room to say no though

Q. When will you get married?
A. God willing, we will be married on the 4th of December, 2010 in Sydney.

Q. Did I pick the ring?
A. Yes, with her identical twin sisters help.

Q. Did she love it?
A. Yes.

Q. Who will photograph the wedding?
A. The guy who originally trained me. His name is Simon James. We’re so stoked to have Simon.

James and Cath - Engaged! from Matt E on Vimeo.

This entry was posted on Saturday, July 3rd, 2010 at 1:10 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.