An Instagram Love Story

It’s true. These two met on Instagram. But don’t let that fool you. Just saying that Elisa and Craig were “meant to be together” might be true, but it kinda sounds cheesy and it doesn’t actually express the depth of their relationship and their love for one another.

Sometimes when we meet couples we simply know we’re meant to tell their story. Elisa and Craig are two of those people. We Skyped with them one Sunday afternoon – us in dreary NC and them in sunny California. We heard their story and fell comfortably into conversation. The entire next week we couldn’t stop telling people about this amazing couple we’d met – how she attended the Passion conference in Atlanta and started following one of the pastors she’d heard speak over on Instagram, how she got curious when Craig commented on a photo she liked, and she hopped over to his feed and started following him too. How Craig followed her back (who wouldn’t?!) How their Instagram friendship eventually turned to a Facebook friendship, messaging and chatting, eventually exchanging numbers, FaceTiming from opposite sides of the country, and then meeting in person in NYC where Elisa was interning at the time.

“When did you know Elisa was the girl you were supposed to marry?” I asked Craig during their engagement session. “On the second day. We were in Chipotle. I looked across the table at her and I had that feeling people talk about. This is it.” Craig described it as one of those things that’s hard to put into words, and yet he told us one of the most beautiful comparisons I’ve ever heard. If you’re a person of faith, this will make sense to you – it just scratches the surface at explaining what love is. He said realizing Elisa was “the one” was like realizing that God is real. You know He is real. And you feel that He’s real. But explaining that to another person – putting it into words – leaves you feeling extraordinarily inadequate. You know the truth. It’s something you feel and believe, but words just don’t do it justice.

That’s also how I feel trying to sum up Elisa and Craig’s story – words don’t do it justice. When we met up in Durham for their engagement session last fall, Tim and I both felt like we’d been friends with them for years. We are beyond excited to be photographing and filming their day in just a few weeks!