When Anthony and Candice reached out to me, I knew Tonto National Forest would be perfect for their engagement session! Why? Let me show you! But first, I want to share the back story on these cuties!
How they met:
Anthony and Candice first met each other at a Cinco de Mayo party that Anthony and his roommates were hosting. Their first time meeting was pretty short, but they saw each other again at a running event in Tempe, then again at the Phoenix Rock Gym. Their fourth time meeting was a night out on Mill Ave with friends, and that’s when Anthony worked up the nerve to ask Candice on a date. That was in May 2014, and (spoiler alert) it worked out pretty well!
How He Asked:
From Anthony: I schemed earlier this year to meet my parents in Singapore and ask while the 4 of us where together. I was awkwardly pointing out a drone at dinner while hesitating to take a picture. When she looked I got down and asked. I don’t even think she or I know what was said. She couldn’t say no because I had her passport in the safe. 😉
From Candice: Anthony’s dad was going to be working in Singapore for several weeks. Anthony saw this as an opportunity to propose in a unique place. I was initially hesitant to go because I was worried about leaving my pup in Arizona without us. Thankfully Anthony convinced me that his brother would watch Charlotte so off to Singapore we went. After touring Singapore for much of the day we went to a restaurant called Level 32 for dinner (which was on the 32nd floor of a building) and were seated with balcony views of the bay.
We went to take a picture and he asked me to look at a drone over the bay. I turned around didn’t see it. I turned back around to face Anthony and he was down on one knee. My heart leapt out of my chest. He said a lot of things I didn’t remember. He proposed with a picture of the real ring in the real box (he did a good job) and had a ring from Target to put on my finger. I remember him ending with “Candice DeFriend, will you marry me!?” I had to push it on my swollen fingers from the crazy humidity and wore that thing proudly the rest of the trip!
Their Favorite Things:
From Anthony: Her singing….
“Anthony is joking here because I’ll get a song stuck in my head and repeat the same 2 lines over and over… and I also make up songs about things going on for example I’ll sing about doing laundry and how it stinks, etc….” -Candice
Her intelligence. Her drive, her caring, her ability to annoyingly relate everything to something to drive her point home. Her family.
From Candice: I love his sense of humor and his smile. Seeing him happy and smile just brightens my day. He likes to make jokes and make people laugh and he’s good at making me laugh. For example, our dog Charlotte always sticks her face into the window to see us when we come home and wags her bottom and tail so much that her while body seems to wiggle. I look forward to this every time I get home from anywhere. Charlotte was at Anthony’s Mother’s the other day and when I pulled the car into the driveway, instead of seeing Charlotte’s face and her wiggling body, I saw Anthony’s face poking through the blinds and was wagging his bottom. It made me laugh out loud.
