College Sweethearts Have Romantic E-Session in San Juan -Munaluchi Bride

Love found Marquette and Jazmyn their freshman year in college. They became friends when Jazymn, a Spelman student, was paired with Marquette’s roommate during the SpelHouse Brother/Sister exchange. They had an instant chemistry the day they met, but remained friends until their senior year when they decided to make their relationship official.

After years of friendship and dating, Marquette decided to propose in San Francisco overlooking the Pacific Ocean. He secretly hired a photographer, who approached the couple and asked if they would be willing to model for a silhouette shot he was trying to capture. They agreed and as they were being photographed, Marquette got down on one knee! Jazymn shares, “I was very surprised and incredibly emotional. We celebrated by attending the Nutcracker, a ballet that Marquette took me to see in Atlanta the night he asked me to be his girlfriend, and then had a small engagement party at my home. The day after he proposed, we traveled to Thailand to celebrate and bring in 2014 together!”

This gorgeous couple is having a destination wedding in Puerto Rico next year, so they decided to do a second engagement shoot there to get their guests excited about the wedding! Their photos by Jesill Ayala of Jesart Photography are a piece of paradise. Make sure to visit the gallery to see all of their gorgeous shots!

Wedding Date: 04/24/2015
Wedding Venue: Hacienda Siesta Alegre, San Juan, Puerto
E-Session Location: San Juan, Puerto Rico

Their First Date

We spent a lot of time together as friends before we became romantically involved, and we easily transitioned from being friends to dating, so it’s hard to pinpoint our “first date.” Throughout the years we spent many evenings studying together at Starbucks or the Robert Woodruff Library, but would always end up talking and not getting much work done. One of our more memorable unofficial dates occurred at the end of our junior year. We were both going to study abroad that summer, he in Europe and Africa, and I in Chile, so we decided to get together at a local restaurant to hang out one last time before we embarked on our trips. It was a fun, excitement-filled time, and we spent the following summer sending each other letters across the hemispheres.

Favorite Thing to do as a Couple

Marquette and I were long distance for a large portion of their relationship; we lived in a combined six different cities from the time we began dating. Over the years we’ve become great at meeting up in new cities and exploring together. We love to travel and have new experiences, but also can’t resist an evening at home with a Redbox movie and a bottle of red wine.

The Engagement Session

We hail from opposite sides of the United States – his family is from Memphis, Tennessee, and my family is from California – and for that reason we chose to do a destination wedding. We considered getting married abroad, but in the end selected Puerto Rico because it was far enough to be a vacation for our guests, yet close enough such that there were no major travel barriers, like passports, long flights, language issues, or currency changes.

We decided to do our second engagement shoot in Puerto Rico to get people excited for the wedding! We wanted a beach shoot, but were also very attracted to the more formal, black tie engagement shoots – so we opted for both! Our photographer, videographer, and rental company helped turn our vision into a reality and we are incredibly happy with the results!

When we arrived at the beach and saw the photographer, videographer, their assistants, equipment, and all the rentals, I started to get really nervous! We are a laid-back couple, so participating in a production like this was new for us. I was hoping that the beach would be deserted but we ended up in a touristy area with quite a few spectators. Strangers were even taking photos of us during the shoot! Despite our initial nervousness, the team made us feel at ease, and we laughed our way through an amazingly fun shoot!

Wedding Planning

Planning a destination wedding in Puerto Rico has been great so far! We recently visited to take care of logistics and have the engagement shoot, which was a really fun trip. The hardest part for us has been controlling the guest list!