The best part about being a Texas wedding photographer is photographing beautiful, super mushy-gushy in love couples.  Another awesome thing is all of the wonderful wedding venues we get to photograph these couple’s love in all across the state. This was my first time getting to photograph a wedding at the Stonebridge Wedding Venue in Blum, TX and I hope it’s not the last. We are so glad to have met this wonderful couple and make some good friends along the way!

Here are some fun questions that I asked Fran and Drew about their relationship and their wedding! Enjoy!

How did the two of you meet?

Fran: We met in New Zealand while Drew was studying abroad. He was roomies with a couple of my friends so that’s how we got to know each other. I’m pretty sure he thought I was a little crazy.

How long did you date before one of you proposed?

Drew: We definitely had to wait until she finished grad school. Planning a wedding while only one person is legally allowed to work (re: make money) and the other one is sprinting through an intensive master’s program didn’t seem like a great idea. I would have proposed before when we were in NZ, but we knew for about a year before we left Aotearoa that we were going to move so I figured waiting was a better choice. Plus, weddings in America are way less expensive than NZ.

Tell us about the proposal!

Fran: It was under the ruse of getting basil. Drew got me up really early saying we needed to go to Helmi’s (a fun garden center/reclaimed vintage furniture shop in Columbia, MO) to get some basil to plant. I thought that was super weird because I was graduating that weekend and both sets of our parents were in town. I didn’t really get why we needed to be doing it that weekend. We headed to Helmi’s and he proposed in the greenhouse surrounded by flowers. He knows I love nature and flowers and he knew I would want it to be super private so it was lovely.

What was your favorite part of wedding planning? 

Drew: Well obviously spending hours and hours and hours and hours and hours… and hours… and hours… making coffee filter flowers to string on lines that wound up immediately getting blown into the branches of the tree we were married under was my favorite part. But actually, working with the photographer was probably the best part. She was super fun and talented, and we took way too much of her time just chatting about things. Always nice to make a friend!

If you could do your wedding day all over again, would you change anything? What was your favorite part of your wedding day?

Fran: No, not from my perspective. I think for me my favorite part was us getting to spend time together with both of our families. Because I’m from New Zealand it’s so rare that we have both sets of parents in the same place at the same time. We kept our guest list pretty small so we could spend quality time with everyone who attended. I’m so glad we did. Other highlights I think we’re probably having both my parents walking me down the aisle. My dad has some ongoing leg issues from a car accident a few years ago. My mum has Alzheimer’s so I think I just appreciate the time I get with my family more and more. I’m so happy they were both there.

How’s married life so far?

Drew: It pretty much feels the same. We had been dating for seven years and living together for five of those.  We haven’t gotten to file taxes jointly yet, so I guess that’ll be different. I do appreciate being able to say “my wife,” instead of “my partner,” which is terminology that Americans haven’t quite evolved to using yet. Plus, there was always that chance she would find someone better and leave me, but now we’re committed for life so… #winning. I would say that the dynamic with my own family has changed a little bit. I feel like they’ve really started to see her as a permanent part of the family, as opposed to having that bit of confusion/mystery/hesitation. Her family basically always treated me like one of their own, so there was really no transition there.

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