I received an email from Kara Hancock out of the blue a few months ago inquiring about my services to shoot engagement photos of her and her fiance, Matt Martin, when they would be in Fayetteville for Matt’s graduation from The University of Arkansas. When I inquired about how she found me she told me Matt was a student at the University of Arkansas and I had taken a photo of him and some other students a year earlier in the Hog Trough at a Razorbacks basketball game. When she described the photo, I knew immediately which one it was. It’s in my portfolio (you can see it here, Matt is second from the right). Kara went on to mention that Matt had specifically requested me to do their engagement photos. I was really excited to know I have a fan.

Matt worked on the field management crew at Baum Stadium while attending school at The University of Arkansas, so Kara told me the stadium was at the top of their list of locations to shoot at along with Old Main on the U of A campus. The day of the shoot was a bit windy and a little cool, but otherwise perfect. I thoroughly enjoyed working with Matt and Kara. They are a very fun couple, very much in love and I wish them the best in their new life ahead.

Matt and Kara’s own story follows:

Matt Martin and Kara Hancock met in the eighth-grade at Benton Junior High School in Benton, Ark. They had their first date on Valentines Day a year later. After high school Matt and Kara went their separate ways, but reconnected their sophomore year of college and they have been together ever since.

Matt proposed to Kara on March 19 at the top of a lighthouse in Jupiter, Fla. She had traveled there to visit him where he works as a turf manager for Major League Baseball’s spring training facilities. The proposal was a total surprise to Kara, “When up at the top we were looking at the amazing view when he dropped to one knee. We are both scared of heights, so I thought he was getting sick. That’s when he pulled out the ring and asked me to spend the rest of my life with him.”

Matt and Kara will wed on Sept. 25 at Bauxite Historical Museum in Bauxite, Ark.

You can see their complete engagement photo session here.