Texas Couple Who Met Through Blind Date Photoshoot Are Engaged — and Their Photographer Wants to Be in the Wedding!

”As soon as we took our blindfolds off . . . I knew she was going to be the woman I was going to spend the rest of my life with,” the soon-to-be-groom said in an interview

A Texas couple is tying the knot soon — and it’s all thanks to the unique way they met.

TJ Spangler and Autumn McElroy began dating after they participated in a blind date photoshoot session at Lake Tyler in Texas last year. For the blind date photoshoot, Spangler and McElroy — then just two strangers — were blindfolded and met each other by touch, holding hands first, before taking off their blindfolds to finally see each other.

”It sounds cliche, but as soon as we took our blindfolds off [and] I looked into her eyes, I knew she was going to be the woman I was going to spend the rest of my life with,” Spangler told KLTV.

Autumn echoed his sentiments, noting that they were lucky that they signed up for the same blind date photoshoot at the same time. She said, per the outlet, “Us meeting was a miracle in itself.”

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“If we hadn’t been there. If we hadn’t chosen that day. If we hadn’t gone on the blind date. If we hadn’t done any of that, this [relationship] wouldn’t have happened,” she shared with KLTV.

That’s why when the time came for Spangler to pop the question, he had no doubts about the way he was going to propose — by paying homage to that first special meeting. He told KLTV that he brought Autumn back to the place where they first met during the blind photoshoot and proposed.

“It held a significance not only to me but her as well. It meant a lot to us to bring it around [full] circle, if that makes sense, to finish it here where it started,” he said.

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That wasn’t the only thing that came full circle. Anita McElroy, the owner and photographer of Texas business, A Sweet Day Photography, who created the blind date photoshoot session that first brought them together, shot their engagement photos.

“Everybody wants to find a genuine connection, that's what I’ve learned through this,” Anita told KLTV.

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According to her Facebook page, Anita sets up different blind date photo sessions that cost $60 per participant. In one post, she encouraged people to sign up saying, “You’ll get cool pictures and a memory that will last forever. You’ll have a funny story [to] tell your grandkids, that’s for sure!”

She was tickled by Autumn and Spangler's engagement, writing on Facebook on June 16, "It’s been such a blessing 🩷 to be apart of this love story. It’s still surreal to me. This whole experience of matchmaking has been! It went from an idea that received lots of backlash but at the same time, support.  This outcome is exactly what I prayed for, what I continue to pray for every match!"

She also teased "an unwritten rule in the blind date contract." Said Anita, "If I match you, and you get married I get to be in the wedding. Guess who is a bridesmaid for the first time . . . This girl!!!"

Spangler and Autumn, who plan to wed in November, told the outlet that they hoped their story would inspire others to step out of their shell and try something new to find their significant other.

“[The photoshoot is] something that special, and it creates an environment where you can fall in love,” Spangler told KLTV, while Autumn chimed in, ”You never know who or what you’re going to find.”

“I found my husband,” she added with a laugh.

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