"I was hanging out at my mom's house and my sister came running over to me," she said. "A family friend of ours that lives in Washington, her friend that lives in Germany had re-posted it not knowing who I was. People were just posting it trying to find me." She then got in touch with Parker and thanked him. "She sent me a really sweet email thanking me so much for the images and for trying so hard to find them. She cried all day," he said. Though some have criticized Parker for watching their special moment, Egbert said she was happy he was there. "He said he doesn't have that kind of picture from when he proposed," she said. "To him, it was something special. He was living through us. He wanted at least someone to have a picture of that special memory. It was a good gesture. He did it for us."

Noorduin found that as the crystals self-assembled, he could control their shape, size and direction of growth by altering the temperature, the amount of carbon dioxide allowed into the reaction and the acidity of the water.

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