I love this couple!! Jess & Clint have huge hearts for each other and for the people around them. It was so apparent in the shoot! We had a blast around JMU and in the hills of Harrisonburg. The mountains are so beautiful this time of year with the leaves changing. We took a few shots near the Honors building since Jess & Clint spent a lot of time there when they were in school. Brings back lots of great memories!!
Here is their story:
Clint and I met my freshman year and his junior year for the first time at shadow placements for Young Life. I was placed on his team to shadow him and the school that he lead at for three weeks. Through this process I got to ask him lots of questions about why he chose to lead and got to learn about his passion and heart for lost high schoolers. After I had been placed on Young Life College for a couple of weeks Clint had to find a date to the Exit 245, an accappela group that he was in throughout college, and he decided to ask me!
This was our first date, after going on a couple more it began to be summer and I went away to summer staff (working at a young life camp for a month) and after that month ended I decided that I did not want to be in a relationship with Clint. I realized that there was a lot that I needed healing from and was not ready to be in a committed relationship.
As summer progress I moved on, but Clint felt in his heart that he needed to wait. That I was not some ordinary girl, but the Lord wanted something special.
As I came back to Harrisonburg after a long summer in Maryland. I oddly ran into Clint everywhere and could not get this boy out of my mind. One day we ran into each other with 45 minutes to spare so we sat down (behind the Honors Porch where we took pictures) and I thanked him for respecting me enough to not talk to me all summer, but he responded with you are welcome, but I have waited for you and will continue to wait until you are ready. Shortly after that we started going on dates and then started dating.
After about 7 months of dating, Clint was a couple months away from graduating and had applied to be on Young Life Staff. He got placed on young life staff in Virginia Beach, four hours away. We decided it was definitely worth the long distance to continue dating.
Shortly into this journey of long distance we both realized not only could we not live in the same city, but that something was off when we were not living life together.
Clint decided that he wanted to propose to me to calm my anxious heart about the future. Although people warned us to not do a long engagement, we both felt that it was the Lord’s plan for us. Clint asked my parents for my hand in marriage and started planning the big day.
On December 6, 2013 Clint had come in town for one of our weekend visits. It was also the Young Life Christmas party. My best friend, teammate, and now Maid of Honor and I got dressed up to go to the Christmas party, we met at one of our teammates houses, but when we got into the cars we found out that we had a team surprise! (at this point I literally did not expect anything because we always would get fun surprises). As we drove we pulled up to an overlook of Harrisonburg. I said “Wow! This is where Clint and I went on our first date!” Right after saying that I noticed Clint, standing in the pouring, freezing rain. He comes and opens my door, gets me out of the car and we start treking through the mud (yes, I was wearing heels) to the bench were we talked for 4 hours on our first date. He sang me Hung the Moon, by Drew and Elle Holcomb and then read me Luke 15. He said very sweet words, got down on his knee and then asked me to be his wife!
Enjoy these shots of Jess & Clint! You two are amazing!!
