Joseph Zimmerman was smitten from the moment he spotted Rebecca Harris. “Joe actually found me first, and I didn’t even know it,” says Becky, a graduate student and a registered nurse. Despite living 30 minutes away from each other in Maryland for most of their lives, the two ultimately met in Texas where Joe was visiting the University of Dallas, which he would attend the following year as a freshman. “She rushed into the English class I was observing and sat down across the room from me wearing her crimson Maryvale Preparatory school sweatshirt,” says Joe, a retirement fund advisor. “After seeing her that first time, I couldn’t shake her from my mind.”
Despite seeing Becky frequently around campus, it would take a while before Joe worked up the nerve to talk to her. “She was an upperclassmen and always seemed to have a boyfriend,” says Joe of why he hesitated. Finally, in the spring of 2008, the two wound up on the same porch at a house party and he finally introduced himself. They shared an instant connection about their mutual love of Baltimore and what brought them to Texas. “It took me two years to finally break the ice and talk to her, but only a couple weeks to let it sink in that this girl was going to mean the world to me,” says Joe.
The lovebirds would date five years before getting engaged a week before Christmas. “Joe proposed to me in front of the Washington Monument in the Mount Vernon Neighborhood of Baltimore,” says Becky. “The monument was entirely lit up with Christmas lights for the season and the night was crisp and clear, with a full moon. It was perfect.”
When it came to the engagement session Becky and Joe wanted a place that was meaningful to them as a couple. “We love our home state of Maryland, and Becky’s father worked in Annapolis for twelve years as an elected official, so Annapolis was a natural choice of location,” says Joe. The two enlisted the help of Karena Dixon Photography and braved the freezing temperatures to get the outdoor shots that they wanted. The couple is set to get married on August 3, 2014, at the St. Christopher Catholic Church in Maryland.
