from the photographer: “Dikenna and Jane are based in Washington DC and will be getting married at the brand new European style venue, The Oxbow Estate, in Clayton, North Carolina. They are extremely excited to fuse their two cultures together for their wedding day: Chinese and Nigerian. For their engagement session, they wanted to do their portraits at the Lincoln Memorial in traditional Nigerian clothing from Dikenna’s family! Their love for one another is infectious and exudes pure joy! We could not be more excited for them!”
Dikenna: I first saw Jane taking pictures of people at church and I was intrigued by the new student photographer everyone seemed to adore. When she asked for volunteers to help on the campus ministry tech team, I signed up. We built a lot of trust working together and we started talking a lot, sometimes about nothing, most times about everything. Jane: I was surprised to find we shared many similarities despite our backgrounds being worlds apart. He wasn’t just friendly and talented; he had an emotional and intellectual depth as well as a worldview that I found so refreshing and thought provoking. In the fall of 2019, I spent a semester abroad in Singapore. Far from family and friends, Dikenna and I continued to talk. I was amazed, thankful, and leery of having such a close friend. Dikenna: I was in France at the same time, and that’s when I started catching feelings. She was extremely thoughtful and genuine. I was drawn by her uncircumstantial joy and admired the deep love and loyalty she had for her family and close friends. I wanted her in my life. I asked if she’d be open to being boyfriend and girlfriend and she said she needed to think about it. Jane: After an emotionally tumultuous semester, we arrived back in the States. Through months of deep reflection, I had finally worked up the courage to tell Dikenna that I liked him. A mere week before COVID shook the world, he told me he wasn’t ready for a relationship since he was about to graduate and move to Seattle. The thought of long distance and the uncertainty of the future understandably scared him. Dikenna: It felt like a breakup. I missed her. Jane: He asked me out in November of 2020 in the thick of the pandemic and we started the most challenging yet exciting years of long distance. Right after graduation, I decided to pick up and move to the other side of the country for him which turned out to be the best decision ever. Dikenna: The months I spent with Jane in Seattle were some of the most exciting in our relationship. She came with me to Nigeria. In the time since, we’ve traveled to Alaska, Berlin, Athens, Mykonos, Croatia, and each place has carried an even sweeter memory. After plans A, B, C, and D fell through, I finally asked Jane to marry me. She said “are you serious?” so many times I thought she was going to say no. However, she said yes, the ring fit like a glove (an oversized glove) and the rest is history!
Photography / The Chase Collective / www.thechasecollective.co / @whitneychasecollective
Videography / The Chase Collective / www.thechasecollective.co / @colbychasecollective
