Wow, this is fancy! We are all for low-key, casual engagement sessions but a black sparkly dress and a matching black tuxedo is doing a number on us. Tampa is beautiful, and adding Morgan and Mike’s dash of elegant spice makes this an Ailyn La Torre session worth seeing.
How did you meet?
We met in a freshman leadership class at UCF. Part of the course required volunteer hours and we ended up in the same car to an event. I got in the car talking about weekend plans and Mike mentioned hockey, which was the initial spark since we are both huge fans. He was going to his first Lightning game: my favorite team. From there, we flirted over the summer and into fall of our sophomore year where we made things more official. 8 years later and we are still hockey fans and still flirting.
What is your proposal story?
Mike surprised me with a day of my favorite things: brunch at Oxford Exchange (which has since become our wedding venue) and a visit to the Museum of Fine Arts in St. Petersburg (the banyan trees next to the museum were where I envisioned myself getting married in high school so it was extra sweet that he made that part of the proposal). It was pouring rain (and a tornado watch in the area) when Mike got down on one knee.
My custom ring wasn’t actually ready yet but Mike had gone to Target to get a temporary ring so he had something to propose with in the moment. We then went to Melting Pot to celebrate, which is a call back to the first “fancy date” we ever had almost 7 years before.
Tell us about the ring/band.
Mike custom designed the band with filigree and rose gold metal. The stone in the center of the ring came from Mike’s great grandmother. Originally, the stone had been placed in Mike’s father’s wedding ring but they took the stone out to make it mine.
