Zeb & Emilie / Deep Creek Lake, MD Engagement Photographer

Deep Creek Lake, MD Engagement Photographer

If you’re like most of the world – the thought of finding a hair in your food at a restaurant is enough to make your stomach churn. I’d have to assume that most people would at the least send their food back and at the most cause quite the scene.
Well, it might not be the most delicious part of their story, but believe it or not, a hair in Zeb’s food was the spark that starts his & Emilie’s story.

Emilie was working as a waitress at the Colonial Grille (a small town diner on Main Street in Irwin, PA) – a restaurant that Zeb (and his coworkers at Eichelberger & Sons) frequented on a regular basis. Eichelberger & Sons is a small, local family owned & operated heating & air conditioning business (started by Zeb’s Grandpa and currently co-owned by Zeb’s Dad & his uncle). As if going to breakfast & lunch at the Grille on a regular basis wasn’t enough to propel Zeb & Emilie’s futures together, Emilie’s Mom had recently started working for Eichelberger’s as a secretary there.

Emilie had met the guys at the shop on occasion and had been introduced to Zeb. So, when the guys came in one afternoon for lunch, she was familiar with who she was waiting on. She did her job as a good waitress, but was shocked when Zeb left her a large tip. She asked Zeb’s brother (who was still finishing up his lunch) if Zeb had mistakenly left the wrong amount, and he explained that Zeb had found a hair in his lunch. Instead of causing a hoopla over it, he left Emilie a larger-than-usual tip.

Mortified, Emilie sent Zeb a Facebook message that night – apologizing for the hair in his lunch & promising that the next time he came in, that his lunch would be on her.

That was all it took. It was the open door needed to begin their friendship. Facebook messages became text messages. Shortly after, Emilie mentioned to Zeb that she was going to be at Deep Creek Lake, MD with her cousins for a weekend away. Since Zeb’s family has a house on the lake (and Zeb owns a boat), he arranged to come over & pick everyone up for a boat ride & ice cream on the lake.

It was the first time they had seen each other (since the hair incident) outside of the shop or the diner & it was refreshing. Not long after that, Zeb asked Emilie out on their first official date. They went to Starbucks & got coffee and found themselves lost in friendly, easy-going conversation.

A few weeks ago, we celebrated their engagement at a place that is very special to both of them: Deep Creek Lake, MD. And I didn’t know until after we had finished up, but it was exactly one year to the day that the infamous “hair incident” occurred.

I also photographed Zeb’s winter proposal to Emilie at Twin Lakes Park in Greensburg, PA! If you’d like even more background on their story, definitely hop over there!

Engagement Photography in Deep Creek Lake, MD Deep Creek Lake, MD Engagement Photographer

This is The Beauty & The Beast pose – do you recognize it from the movie?! Zeb is a renown dancer (mostly Michael Jackson moves) and when they told me they’d been enamored by the new Beauty & The Beast movie (specifically the ballroom scene) and been practicing, I had to find out if they could pull this off. AMAZING!!