It’s always a different game when I photograph people close to me. It’s both an advantage and a challenge- knowing someone for so long that you can’t see them objectively. Meg and I are cousins, so we’ve literally known each other since birth. We spent weeks during the summer at the beach, shared week-long games of Monopoly and fought over the best pool toys, swapped clothing and dished on the latest goings-on in each other’s life. She was my maid of honor, she’s the classiest girl I know, and the reason behind my undying love for JCrew. I remember first hearing about William- well, actually, I remember the first photo of the two of them popping up on Facebook five years ago, and then I remember calling Meg to ask who this guy was.

They met in the summer at their favorite place on earth- Bald Head Island. Meg & William were introduced while working at the BHI Club; she as a hostess, he as a golf cart guy (the island doesn’t allow for cars so everyone drives carts). There’s something romantic about summer nights, and something even moreso when those summer nights take place on Bald Head. Maybe it’s the canopy of Spanish moss that graces most of the winding golf cart roads, or the sprawling beach views, or the sense of being removed from the rest of the world, but that summer led to something beautiful, something more than either of them knew at the beginning. It only made sense, then, when William was ready to ask Meg for her hand, that he’d take her back to where it all began and proposed on a warm August night at the Bald Head Island ferry.

William, Megs, I love you both.

Stay tuned for part 2 coming tomorrow morning!