Rooftop engagement photos in Goldsboro, NC after a karaoke proposal

Under the warm amber glow of Edison string lights in their town of Goldsboro, N.C., Jon (he/him) and Jeff (he/him) move through the city’s brick alleyways and Gothic stone archways like they’ve always known exactly where they’re going. The ring on Jon’s finger is new. The ease between them is not.

Photographer Kivus and Camera followed the couple through various corners of the city: rooftop parking decks lit by studio strobes and long-exposure light painting, the floral mural bar where they clinked amber cocktails, the street-level shadow of an Art Deco facade and a silhouette shot framed by a glowing blue arched window. The images are cinematic and deliberate, shifting between velvet blazers and all-black suiting, color and black-and-white, candid laughter and quiet stillness. They set the tone for a couple who have always written their own rules.

How they met

“We met online in October 2020, although Jeff will happily tell you that our love story almost ended before it started because I ‘left him on read,’” Jon says. “In my defense, I fell asleep! I messaged him first thing the next morning and later that afternoon, he came over.”

“There wasn’t some elaborate first date planned. We just sat together for hours—talking, listening to music, laughing and getting to know each other. It felt easy almost immediately. Eventually, I ordered us a pizza, the hours kept passing and Jeff ended up staying the night.”

“Neither of us knew that something so simple would become the beginning of everything,” he continues. “From that night forward, we were pretty much inseparable. In the nearly six years since we met, we can probably count on our hands the number of nights we’ve spent apart.”

“We always say we became best friends before we really understood what we were becoming to each other. There wasn’t a rulebook, a perfect timeline or some grand plan. There was just a conversation that lasted for hours, some music, a pizza and two people who apparently never wanted the night to end.”

“And, thankfully, I did message him back,” Jon adds with a laugh.

The proposal

“Jeff proposed—and apparently I was the only person who didn’t know it was happening,” Jon says.

“When we first moved into our home, we never had a housewarming party, so we eventually decided to throw one. We invited everybody—friends and family from New York, Michigan, North Carolina, the whole nine yards. As far as I knew, everyone was coming to celebrate our home.”

“What I didn’t know was that Jeff had turned our housewarming into an engagement party, and EVERYONE was in on it except me.”

The moment arrived during karaoke. Their song, the same one they’d sing again months later during their engagement photos, was already in the rotation.

“At some point during the party, we started doing karaoke, which is something we love,” he says. “Eventually, Jeff and I got up to sing our signature song, ‘If I Didn’t Have You’ from Monsters, Inc. Now, looking back, I genuinely don’t know how I didn’t realize something was happening. We’d been doing karaoke already, but when Jeff and I got up to sing, suddenly everyone stood up, pulled out their phones and gathered around to watch us.”

“And what was going through my head? Basically, ‘Oh, they KNOW we’re about to kill this song,’” Jon says. “I really thought everybody had gathered around because they were ready for the Jon and Jeff karaoke performance!”

“We kept singing, and when we reached the very end of the song—’A-E-I-O… that means you’—I turned around. Jeff was on one knee holding the ring. I was completely shocked.”

“Suddenly all the phones made sense. Everyone gathering around made sense. Our friends and family traveling in made sense. This ‘housewarming’ had never really been just a housewarming at all.”

“What makes it even more special is that Jeff proposed in our home, surrounded by the people we love, while we were doing something that is so completely us,” he says. “It wasn’t staged to be some picture-perfect romantic moment. We were laughing, singing karaoke and being ourselves—and right in the middle of it, Jeff asked me to marry him.”

“Looking back, I love that our engagement began that way. In a house we were building into our home, surrounded by our people, singing our song. And apparently with everyone knowing what was about to happen except me.”

What they love most

“What I love most about Jeff is that he’s my ride or die,” Jon says. “He’s genuinely down for whatever life throws at us—or whatever crazy idea I come up with next. Within four months of knowing each other, we were already leaving the country together for our first trip. That’s pretty much been us ever since.”

“Jeff encourages me to go after the things I want, even when the idea sounds completely insane at first. He supports me, believes in me and gives me the space to express myself without feeling like I have to tone down who I am. He’s helped me work through insecurities simply by accepting me exactly as I am.”

“I love that we can still sit and talk for hours,” he continues. “I love that we can travel together, laugh together, dream together and decide what kind of life WE want rather than worrying about what everyone else thinks it should look like. We aren’t afraid to live outside the rules.”

Jon also shares what Jeff has said about him. “For Jeff, one of the things he says he loves most about me is that I’ve changed the way he sees what’s possible for his life. Before us, he didn’t necessarily picture himself having a family or some of the things we now dream about together. He says I ground him, but at the same time, I’ve shown him that our world can be bigger than he once imagined.”

“I’ve shown him possibilities he didn’t think were available to him—things he never thought he’d be able to do or experience—and now we look at those possibilities as things we can build together,” he says. “I think that’s one of the best parts of us. Jeff reminds me that I don’t have to be afraid to be completely myself, and I remind Jeff that we don’t have to be afraid to dream bigger. Somewhere in the middle, we’ve created a life that neither of us would have built alone—and we’ve done it without following anybody else’s rulebook.”

Looking forward

“What we’re looking forward to most is finding out what J Squared becomes next,” Jon says.

“So much of our relationship has been about discovering possibilities together. We met, became inseparable, traveled, built a home, brought our families together and somehow ended up planning a wedding bigger and crazier than either of us probably imagined. Marriage feels less like the finish line and more like the beginning of our next chapter.”

“We’re excited about building a family together. We’re excited about more stamps in our passports, more ridiculous ideas that start with one of us saying, ‘Okay, hear me out…,’ more late-night conversations, more karaoke and all the ordinary days in between. We’re even looking forward to the parts we can’t plan.”

“If our relationship has taught us anything, it’s that some of the best things in our lives weren’t things we could have predicted when we first met,” he says. “We’ve pushed each other to dream differently, take chances and imagine a life bigger than either of us imagined alone.”

“We don’t know exactly what our marriage will look like 10, 20 or 40 years from now—and we actually love that. We just know we’re going to build it the same way we’ve built everything else: together, completely ourselves and without a rulebook.”

The wedding is set for Oct. 10, 2026. They have been together since Oct. 8, 2020. ❤️

Photographer: Kivus and Camera

Location/Venue: Goldsboro, N.C.