Adam and Lila met us in D.C. for a super top secret tour of Capitol Hill for their engagement session. We were surrounded by ornately covered marble walls and gold inlays (give me all the white and gray marble!). This was the city where they met and fell in love!

Adam is the Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Senate affairs at the U.S. Department of State, and Lila is the Vice-President of Government Affairs for Autos Drive America. No big deal, right? They came to D.C. to make history, but had no idea the kind of history they would actually end up making.

The first time they officially met, they were stuck in an Uber together. She didn’t like him one bit. They ended up on a 4-day business trip to Africa as part of their jobs, and by the time they came home, they were best friends. They texted, talked, met for coffee, and went to movies for weeks - until suddenly, he stopped talking to her for several days. He realized he had to make a decision, because he liked her as much more than just a friend. Finally on Feb 1st of this year, they went out for ice cream and he made his move: He went for the kiss. And his bravery paid off.

Over the next two weeks, they seamlessly transitioned from best friends into boyfriend and girlfriend. He met her parents just a couple of weeks later, and when he saw Lila with them - the bubbly, effervescent, and vulnerable Lila who had always been the apple of her parents’ eyes; not the ultra-confident, all-business, no-BS Lila that he knew so well from Capitol Hill - he knew he was really and truly falling in love with her.

He proposed at her family's farm far away from D.C., in a remote corner of the Blue Ridge mountains. He spent weeks texting Lila's father in secret, making plans for the proposal that her mother didn't even know was coming. He pre-ordered pumpkins that they picked up on the way, and when they got to the farm, her dad rushed Adam out to the barn in the rain. Lila and her mom didn't hear from them again for almost two hours.

Suddenly her dad bursts in the back door of the house and tells her to go find Adam. Confused, cold, and wet, she wandered around in the dark outside, calling for Adam. Eventually she finds him next to four pumpkins, freshly carved with the words "Will you marry me?" on them. It was so dark she couldn't even see the ring, but she said yes. (The ring, it turns out, was pretty spectacular.)

Fast forward to the middle of December back in Washington. We met them at Capitol Hill for an ultra-private tour of the Senate complex, where they took us to the room where he first saw her - The Senate Finance Committee Room. As far as we know, this is the first time in US history that a couple has gotten access to this room for their engagement session!!

That was just the beginning of the evening, too. Come along as we explore the Senate, then move to the Smithsonian Castle and finally finish the session in Lila’s favorite hidden garden in all of DC. It was a magical night from beginning to end!