What to Wear Apple Picking | How We Met

photography: Kelli McAbee

Outfit Details:

On Him: buttoned-down top | pants | boots || On Her: chambray top (similar here and here) | quilted vest (comes in multiple colors!) | Corduroy Skirt | Ankle boots

What to Wear Apple Picking

First things first. What to wear apple picking! We went to Sky Top Orchard in Hendersonville, NC and it was so much fun! The orchard is only a little over an hour from Greenville, South Carolina and it’s equally close to Charlotte, too. It was my first time and I wanted to look the part! I remember pinning a bunch of posts from my favorite New England fashion bloggers like Katie Bliss, Carly Heitlinger, and Sarah Vickers. I wanted to look like we had just stumbled out of a J.Crew ad. How do you think we did? 😂  We look so preppy and I secretly love it.

Isn’t apple picking just the cutest fall date idea? Add it in with a trip to the pumpkin patch, too! When it comes to style, Old Navy always comes through with these classic vests. Also, I think Hunter Boots or duck boots are definitely part of the quintessential fall in the mountains outfit. Speaking of which, I didn’t really think about the whole “we’re on a mountain it’s going to be very cold.” LOL. It’s called Sky Top Orchard for a reason! Don’t wear a skirt like me without checking the weather friends. I was freezing the entire time! Your favorite jeans, flannel, vest, and boots will do just fine. :)

A Bit of Back Story

I apologize for the length of this post in advance! Before we begin, I need to share about my luck with love. Growing up, I went to predominantly white schools in small-town Georgia. It wasn’t uncommon for me to not only be the only black kid in my class (or school), but also the only person of color. As you can imagine, it was definitely a bit damaging to my self-esteem. They’d say things like, “You’re pretty, for a black girl… but I can’t date you.” OR I’d have guys be master manipulators and flirt with me to find out more about my best friends.

Year after year I’d get my hopes up thinking it was finally my chance, but they’d just want to be friends. Which, Praise the LORD because 99% of the guys from my high school were losers haha. However, this did make me very dense when someone was flirting with me in college because I was so used to blocking it out as “friendship.”

How We Met

And now on to the mushy gushy. Will and I met at Auburn in August 2012, our freshman year. We met at the most southern and wholesome of places… bible study. LOL. The Auburn Wesley Foundation will always be special to me. It’s a campus ministry and hosted a welcome event for freshmen during the first week of school! I basically lived there for the entire time I was in college, working in leadership, attending worship, and making lifelong friends. Will also went to Wesley his freshman year because his former youth pastor was involved when he went to Auburn and encouraged him to go (Thanks, Carl!).

We were friends our entire freshman year, but we definitely had small crushes on each other!  However, it was nothing too serious. I was in a relationship at the time and I think Will was more interested in enjoying the true, college experience hehe. We were in the same friend circles and hung out often. I remember thinking he was sooo funny and was impressed when I heard him rap the entirety of HYFR by Drake. It’s definitely going to be our first dance song! LOL jk, but could you imagine?! In March 2013 I broke up with my first and only other boyfriend. If  Ariana Grande released “Thank u, next” back then I would’ve been blasting it 24/7. So, of course, I settled for Never Ever Getting Back Together instead. During the spring semester, Will and I kept being friends while I always wondered, “what-if”?

Fast-forward to the summer of 2013. I was taking classes at Auburn and he moved back home to work with his church youth group. I guess this helped prepare us for our long-distance relationship! Because I was pre-med, I had to take Calculus (which I HATED) and struggled to keep up since I was taking it online. After getting a D on the first exam, I thought I’d ask the smartest guy I know to help me out. ;)

Thank goodness he’s a chemical engineer or my plan probably wouldn’t have worked! Will agreed to tutor me over Skype and we would end up talking about random stuff wayyy past derivatives and slope. I never thought it was romantic (hola, emotionally damaged chica here). Will loves to bring it up and say, “Why else would I want to do math problems in the summer?!” LOL. But I remember just thinking how nice it was to talk with a man who was so intelligent, kind, and helping with church kids! I’m sure my mind was like, “WIFE HIM UP, GIRL!”

Sophomore Year

At the beginning of the fall semester, I was inspired to create more intentional friendships like the one I was forming with Will. I got lunch with a bunch of people from Wesley once a week where we could talk about anything. The last one before Thanksgiving break just happened to be with Will and it was a pretty superficial conversation. Honestly, I thought he was just not that into me! But now he’s told me that he thought I didn’t like him since I was getting lunch with everyone. Ugh, talk about missed connections! I decided not to push him on sharing more during our lunch and we said goodbye and went to class.

That weekend, I somehow squeezed 30+ people into my tiny college apartment for my first annual Friendsgiving. Without asking, Will helped take charge in the kitchen, carved the ham, arranged all the food, and helped me clean up afterward! Instead of leaving when everyone else did, he stayed. “I think I’m ready to talk more with you now,” he said. 😍 And boy, did he mean it! We ended up talking from around 11 PM to 6 AM in the morning on the floor of my bedroom about life, past relationships, our parents. Anything and everything that was raw and real. That’s probably the most I’ve ever talked to anyone in one sitting, let alone a guy!

However, I still didn’t think he was into me! Yes, I know. I’m crazy. He drove straight home to Charlotte and I remember I was worried he would fall asleep at the wheel on the way back. I mean, a 6-hour drive is rough but adding sleep deprivation is probably not the best! That’s when I knew I was really in trouble- I really, really liked him. Columbus is only 45 minutes from Auburn so I kept checking my phone once I was home to make sure he got back ok. He texted me nonchalantly throughout Thanksgiving break but finally asked me to go out to dinner whenever we got back to Auburn.

I stared at the message for a while with my heart in my stomach and replied, “Oh, who else should we invite? That sounds fun!” Honestly, it’s amazing Will didn’t reach through the phone and shake me for being so dense. After a few nerve-wracking moments of those 3 dots on the screen, he replied, “No, I was hoping it could just be the two of us. :)”

Happily Ever After

We went to Olive Garden for our first date, won the historic Iron Bowl the day afterward, and started officially dating 3 weeks later. 4.5 years in the future, we’re engaged and planning our happily ever after! I prayed for a man like Will all of my life. Years after accepting the bare minimum from guys and approaching love with a 10-foot pole, I found a man willing to put God first and love me unconditionally. I’m so thankful we were able to be friends first because it created such a solid foundation for our relationship. When I look back on everything that has happened in our lives, it was all worth it to end up where God has brought us.

P.S. These aren’t our engagement photos. Will just agreed to let us shoot while we went to apple picking and I couldn’t waste such a good pun/opportunity! “Picking a date”, “picking apples”?! Life of the Instagram husbands. ;) Stay tuned for our engagement shoot later this month!

SHOP THE POST:

LET’S KEEP IN TOUCH!

Facebook | Twitter | TikTok  | Instagram | Pinterest | YouTube

You Might Also Like… What to Wear to a Fall Wedding and My Proposal Story!