It turned into the most beautiful evening by the ocean in Newport to document the love of Lauren and Howard at Ochre Court and Easton Beach! They first met at Boston University at a scholarship reception. Howard was a Posse scholar and Lauren was an MLK scholar and during the reception, they friendly exchanged names, but had no interest any each other. Howard became good friends with Lauren’s best friend at the time and hall mate, so he often spent time on her floor. One day, Howard knocked on Lauren’s door asking where her friend was. Because her friend wasn’t there, Lauren (being polite and southern), kindly invited him to the library thinking that he would most likely decline. To her surprise, he agreed to go and they ended spending the entire time chatting and not studying. Well, the rest is history.

Lauren and Howard love to watch movies, eat yummy food, hang with their friends, laugh, and travel to new places. Their first date was on Lauren’s birthday back in April of 2011 and they officially started dating that following September. One of their favorite date’s together were at a restaurant in Dallas, Tx, called the Reunion Tower. They also loved going go-cart racing, axe-throwing, and their many beach days together. Howard is a Senior Trainer at the Posse Foundation (college access and persistence non-profit) and Lauren is a Training Associate at Health Resources in Action (public health consulting non-profit). Howard admires the fact the Lauren is so thoughtful, gives amazing gifts, and has strong faith in God, herself, and themselves as a couple. Lauren loves how incredibly patient, kind and compassionate he is to her. She loves how he is so committed in making sure she pursues every dream she has for herself. Their relationship is really special because of how they are one another’s best friend. Many people always tell them that they never feel like a third wheel when they hang out with them together.

After being through so much together, over the course of almost 8 years, Howard felt it was time to propose. So over the Fourth of July weekend, in 2019, they planned a short vacation to Cape Cod. What Lauren didn’t know was that Howard was planning to propose that weekend. She became a bit suspicious earlier that week (truly because of the Holy Spirit preparing her), but she still wasn’t confident that he would actually ask. She ended up asking her best friends and they were clueless, so good job on Howard’s part! During that week, Lauren had time to really process her thoughts about the future in light of the grief and loss of a loved one that she had experienced that year. It was during that week that God confirmed to her that if he proposed, she should and could say, “yes.”

Howard and Lauren arrived in Cape Cod on Friday evening and had plans to go to lunch the following day. On Saturday morning, they went to the beach, followed by a nice lunch together. After lunch, Howard mentioned to Lauren that the beach they went to earlier was a hosting a BBQ and they could stop by. Since Lauren loved the idea of two lunches and fireworks, she was quite excited! When they pulled up to the beach, Howard’s best friend (and photographer) was at the top of the stairs leading down to the beach. Howard left Lauren and went to the bottom of the stairs. As she walked down the stairs, she was stopped by 7 of their friends. And one at a time, they each read a small passage that Howard had written about each year of their relationship. When Lauren got to the bottom of the stairs, Howard shared how impactful and meaningful their relationship was to him, and of course, he proposed!! Lauren happily accepted and they went back to their Airbnb with their friends to celebrate with a dinner and drinks that they had prepared for them! And in her words, “It was the perfect day!”

Lauren and Howard cannot wait for their wedding day to be here! They are still going to get married on their original wedding date (my birthday actually), but instead of going to MD, they are going to stay local in MA for their intimate wedding. Next year they will celebrate with all of their friends and family in MD. Lauren is so excited for all of their close friends and family to be in one place! She cannot wait to enter into this season of joy and celebration with everyone and officially start a life with her best friend. She honestly cannot wait to dance at the reception too! Howard is most excited for moments that will happen throughout the day, such as the ‘First look,’ exchanging vows, first dance, and having a great time dancing at the reception. He is so excited for the first time he gets to put on his wedding ring and show people!

As a married couple, they cannot wait to build a home together and be able to come home to the other person. They are firm believers the scripture in Proverbs 27:17, that “Iron sharpens iron.” Their passion for walking in and experiencing joy is so evident in their engagement session and obviously will be carried into their fun-joy-filled wedding day that’s coming very soon, as well as their marriage, there is not doubt about that!!!

So beautiful together!

THIS! This picture just makes me smile every. single. time!

Lauren, you are STUNNING!

YESSS!

Everything just turned out so beautiful and perfect.

POWER COUPLE. I am so here for this!

Too sweet.

Simply breathtaking.

So in love with her dress!

Loved how the light just came shining right down on them. ✨

OK Howard!

So beautiful.

QUEEN. 👑

Their smiles are contagious!

 

And of course, it would only be appropriate for us to play a song so that they could have some real fun and dance together!

I have video footage of this, it was AMAZING!

The faces of them mimicking my British accent as we pretended that this was their estate! 😂

Love her ring!

Those in between moments.

Another dance session because, why not?

Since these two are beach lovers, we had to end their session by the water.

Everything was perfect! 😍

The sunsetting left us with the perfect sky.

And this evening together was EPIC!

Lauren and Howard,

Thank you sooo much for such an amazing and fun evening together!!! You literally blessed my soul after some unexpected stress earlier this day. I cannot even believe how much joy you two brought me! THANK YOU!!! I cannot wait to celebrate my 30th with y’all, documenting your union and covenant to one another. Your wedding day is going to be extra special and so sweet!!! I know there will be lots of, “yes, Charity,” happening, haha. I am truly, truly, so grateful that God made our paths cross! I am so beyond honored to be apart of your journey, you have no idea. I love y’all dearly!

Much joy,

Charity HOPE