Engaged: Dana & Ashley | Analisa Joy Photography | Upland, CA Photographer

I loved photographing Dana and Ashley’s engagement session. Ashley and I have been exchanging emails for months and it was so exciting to meet her in person. I feel like we have been online dating and we finally received the opportunity to meet face to face. Speaking of online dating, Dana and Ashley met on match.com. They grew up only 20 minutes from one another and they shared common friends, but it was the internet that brought these two together. Online dating is awesome and so many of my couples have met through various dating websites. I loved hearing Ashley’s verision of the initial process.

We had both kind of exhausted our friends of friends/co-workers and other avenues and decided to sign up.  I am not one to initiate, especially when it comes to dating, but after seeing Dana’s profile online and looking through his pics…I thought he looked like a really nice guy, so I “winked” at him.  A few days later, he winked at me back.  Nothing ever happened and I actually started dating someone briefly and then traveled for a bit, so I let my account expire.  About 6 months later, I signed back up and saw that Dana was still on it.  I was hoping he wouldn’t think I was obnoxious, but I “winked” at him again.  Again, a few days later he winked back.  Well a couple weeks go by I still haven’t heard anything.  I decided to go for it and emailed him with something along the lines of, “Wow, I thought I played hard to get, but you are on a whole new level.”  He finally wrote me back and after a couple of emails, he asked me on a date.  We hit it off on our first date and the rest is history!

When Dana started planning a Kauai vacation, Ashley (along with family/friends) were hoping for a proposal. Prior to the trip, they went on a hike with a group of friends. When they got to the top, they took a break to check out the view and take pictures. When everyone was done taking photos, the group continued on their hike while Dana and Ashley lingered behind. Dana asked Ashley to take a few more photos and when they were finally alone he popped the question. She was in shock because she anticipated the proposal to come during their Hawaiian vacation. Ashley’s sister and Dana’s best friend were the only two people in the large group to know about the proposal and they caught it all on film. All the friends that tagged along were in shock when they turned around and saw that they were engaged. Everyones surprised reactions were one of their favorite memories of the day. Ashley loved that the proposal caught her off guard because she was able to go to Kaui without the suspense of waiting for a proposal. She was able to enjoy her vacation and show off her new bling from her fiancé. I had so much fun with these two and I can’t wait for their wedding day. Congrats Dana and Ashley!

Love this!

So gorgeous! 

Her hair is perfection! 

One of my favorites! These two are the cutest!