A Summer Blue Ridge Parkway Engagement Session | Blowing Rock, NC
How did you meet?
Blair: “Tripp & I first became friends on social media and quickly realized that we both had a close mutual friend. We basically credit her with our actual meeting each other. I tell him all the time if it hadn’t been for her giving me the inside scoop on him I would have never met him for our first date. So we essentially met for a blind date at the Dairy Queen on April 6th, 2015. After the date, Tripp laughed when I pulled out my planner to plan our next date but now says he thought at that moment ‘what am I getting myself into?’ (I wasn’t living in Shelby at the time so I was looking to see when I would be back!)”
What was it like early in your relationship?
Blair: “Early on, there was a lot of driving back and forth for both of us. I was in occupational therapy school in Hickory and Tripp was living in Forest City. We were both always really tired since he or I would stay late before driving the 45 minutes back to our own homes but it was all worth it. After I finished school, I moved to Morganton for my first OT job and Tripp continued living in Forest City, which shortened that commute to see each other to about 30 minutes. The driving continued for the first 2 years of our relationship until this past year when the driving aspect changed. Tripp bought a house in Shelby and I moved home with my parents since there was no point in paying rent only to come home to Shelby every night to see him. It’s gonna be so awesome not having to leave to go home every night once we’re married! Through it all over the past almost 3 years, there have only been a handful of days where we haven’t seen each other, and on those days we were texting, calling or facetiming.”
Name one thing you love about each other.
Tripp: “I love that Blair is so honest, even though sometimes too honest, but it keeps me in line!”Blair: “I love that Tripp always makes me feel beautiful and lets me know as soon as he sees me… whether I’m in paint-stained clothes or dressed to the nines. He may not be the most romantic but he lets me know how much he cares through his words and actions. I also love that he gives me foot rubs when no one else will!”
How did Tripp propose?
Blair: “Our church does a church service at the fair every year and on October 1, 2017, Tripp was adamant about going hiking this same day and skipping the church service. ‘The weather’s perfect, we went to the fair last night, my sister and her boyfriend want to go hiking today.’ The girl that set us up on our first date even played a role by texting and complaining that we weren’t going to be at the church service! So Tripp, Emilee, her boyfriend and I got in the truck and we went to Dupont State Forest, which is where Tripp and I took our first picture together. We went to the High Falls waterfall first, which was opposite order from when we took our first picture. We then went to Triple Falls and walked down below all three waterfalls, which is where Tripp proposed. He’ll tell you that I had no idea that it was going to happen but I did know it was coming. Emilee brought her huge, fancy camera to hike (who does that? haha) and he had taken my True Love Waits ring from my hand a couple of weeks before and left the room, only to return 10 minutes later with it.”
