I was beyond excited to be Jelessa and Carl’s wedding photographer, more importantly having the opportunity to capture their intimate engagement session at the Wilder Restaurant in Fort Lauderdale, Fl.
She told me that their very first introduction occurred in October 2013 & at that time both of them were college students in Tallahassee. During that time their friends Jalecia and Dominic were expecting a baby girl and they asked both Carl and Jelessa to be her Godparents! They were super excited! Now being new Godparents, they played the role of their God daughters parent’s maternity shoot, baby shower planning, her birth, and christening which took place in April 2014. The christening was the last time Jelessa saw Carl before moving to Georgia for graduate school a few months later. While away, Jelessa would ask how Carl was doing and if he was visiting Jayde their beautiful Goddaughter, etc. but nothing more than that (lol). Nevertheless, they didn’t have each other’s phone numbers. He was truly just “Jayde’s God Daddy” in her eyes. In May of 2016, Carl requested her on Facebook & he saw that she was a recent graduate and he left a “Congrats” comment under one of Jelessa’s photos.
Fast forward 5 months later, (Yayy!) she’s invited to a surprise dinner at Shooters Waterfront restaurant for their God Daughters father and Carl was there! They hadn’t seen each other in person in years; (low key-sparks fly), it was good to see that he was doing well she thought. Throughout the night at dinner, Carl kept asking Jelessa to dance and she politely told him no multiple times. He was very persistent and she eventually agreed because he was not giving up. Here’s the BEST part; when they finally made it to the dance floor the band stopped playing & apparently their set was over lol. Soooo Awkward... Carl was disappointed but he sparked a random conversation to prevent her from going back to her seat. Jelessa told me she never thought much of who he was as a person outside of his role in Jaydes life, but his growth & maturity throughout our conversations was evident and gave her a different perspective of the wild college boy she once saw him as. Lastly, a few days later, he asked for her number, they went out on a few amazing dates and then on December 7, 2016 Carl asked Jelessa to be his girlfriend and she happily said yes!
