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closeWhen Luke Goddard and Drew Watkins, both of Warner Robins, got engaged in July 2008, it was a private moment between the two of them.
Well, there was the video camera.
Luke Goddard surprised his girlfriend of 3 1/2 years with the proposal in front of an old tree on St. Simons Island, where a year earlier he had carved their initials.
Watkins was under the impression that the two were just going on a bike ride to visit the tree when Goddard dropped to his knee and asked her to marry him.
The proposal was captured on video and later posted on YouTube, where it has been viewed nearly 75,000 times.
“Drew and I wanted to share our story. We wanted the world to see the uplifting story of two young people in love.”
After the success of their engagement video, Goddard, who in the past has helped promote independent artists, saw an opportunity.
He wrote nine original songs for him and Watkins, which drew the attention of a recording company, and the two have since recorded an album on the Homemade Genius label.
At least one of the songs included on the album, “Our Own Little World,” was written not because of the engagement but because of an argument.
“‘Song About You,’ is the first song on the album,” Watkins said. “I wrote it before we got engaged, after we had some petty argument. We had made up, but when I was on my way home, I felt like there were some things I had left unresolved. I wrote that song so that she would know exactly how I felt.”
If being engaged, cutting an album and touring across the Southeast weren’t enough for the couple, Goddard, 23, and Watkins, 21, were also featured in May on TLC’s “Wild Weddings.”
After the success of the YouTube video, Goddard said, he and Watkins were contacted by NBC about being part of a show. That didn’t work out, but soon after that, he said, a producer contacted him about using the video on the “Wild Weddings” show, which features video clips from weddings and engagements.
“It has all been just a surreal experience,” Goddard admitted. “We really had no motive except to share the story of our engagement.”
The two will be married Sept. 19. Goddard is graduating in July with a degree in English from Macon State College, and Watkins will be starting her senior year at Wesleyan College, majoring in early childhood education and minoring in music.
Goddard’s priority right now is finding a full-time job.
“Drew will still be in school for a year, so I have got to find something,” he said.
That something could end up being music.
“This just all kind of happened. We enjoy the creating, the writing, the recording, even the distributing,” he said.
But while success has just seemed to fall into Goddard’s and Watkins’ laps in recent months, Goddard said their priorities have not changed.
“The most important thing right now is each other and the life that we are beginning ...,” Goddard said.
The two are working on an EP (extended play) with six new songs. Goddard describes their music as a combination of indie, pop and folk.
Goddard and Watkins, who have performed in Warner Robins, will be winding down their live appearances due to the wedding, but they have one more event planned in the Middle Georgia area.
They will appear at 8 p.m. July 7 at the Golden Bough Bookstore, 371 Cotton Ave., before traveling to Greenwood, S.C., where their label is located, for a bigger show.
“We have played in Warner Robins but never in Macon, so we are excited about this show.”
Contact Alline Kent at allinekent@cox.net or at (478) 396-2467.
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