Princeton Engagement Session | Princeton University | Kristina & River

Last Fall, I photographed Kristina and River’s Princeton engagement session at Princeton University. Kristina and River first met in 7th grade through a mutual friend. Kristina had spotted River on Myspace and thought he was the cutest guy she had ever seen. River went to a different middle school than her so she figured she would never meet him. Little did she know, they had a mutual friend who would introduce them. A year later, River moved and had the choice of transferring middle schools in 8th grade to her middle school, he chose to transfer schools to be with her.

Their first date was at their town carnival in June of 2010. They went with a group of friends but eventually ventured off by themselves to get some ice cream at Halo Pub where they spent the entire night joking around and getting to know one another.

Engaged on 10/05/2019, the proposal from Kristina: “I always wanted to go to the sunflower field and one weekend River surprised me and said we were going and both of our families were going too. At first, I didn’t think much of it because our families hangout all the time together so I just figured it was going to be a nice day spent with everyone. Little did I know, River planned on proposing! He, his mom, and my mom had been planning it for days. Secretly hiding their phones, text messages, and the RING of course. It couldn’t have been more perfect the way he did it. It was the most beautiful day and I couldn’t have asked for anything more!”

Kristina and River are planning an elegant and rustic September wedding at the Merion in Cinnaminson, NJ. Kristina has always loved rustic tones and accessories that include the farmhouse style, but has always dreamed of having a wedding reception in a ballroom. They plan to include rustic accessories such as fairy lights, tea light candles, logs, and branches for centerpieces while still having an elegant style setting with a big dance floor in a classy room.

When they aren’t planning their wedding, they love date nights at their favorite Italian restaurant, watching movies, going for long walks with their fur-son, Damon, and running errands together where they end the night at the Chick-Fil-A drive thru. Once married, their dreams as a married couple include traveling the world, getting to expand their family with 2-3 children, growing old together, and living life to the fullest with lots of laughter in between!

Any advice for future couple’s planning?

Start planning immediately! The most important thing that we did which helped us tremendously was after we got engaged, we started searching for venues in our price range. After we found a few, we went on tours and narrowed them down to our favorites. One of the first questions I asked after touring the venues was the date availability. River and I both wanted a fall wedding in either September or October. Once you lock in both venue and date, it becomes a lot easier to plan because you can search for all the other vendors since you have a wedding date.

And finally, what are you most looking forward to about your wedding day?

What we are most looking forward to about our wedding day is finally being able to say “I do” to one another after 11 years of being together. Not many people can say at 12 years old they found the loves of their life, but we could not imagine marrying any other person than each other. We are best friends and so excited to celebrate our love with the ones that mean the most to us!

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