Jael’s surprise proposal

There she stood modeling in the rain for us unaware that her beloved was about to surprise her and ask her to marry him. It was the kind of surprise proposal I knew she would of planned herself. Outdoors, surrounded by trees, facing the lake while the sun set behind, a light drizzle of rain and the man of her dreams. Everything happened just as I had dreamt it would day after day that week. We managed to trick her the two hours we spent at the park prior to all of this making her think that this was all about hanging out together. I purposely positioned her by this massive beautiful tree that would block her view from where he would be walking. She noticed him as his shadow grew near and she says, “It felt like it was him”. The rest…. well allow me to show you:

That twinkling looking stuff around them my friends, is the lightest rain I have ever seen. It was as if I purposely made it rain just for this moment… absolutely magical. He didn’t want to give her the ring right away and thats why we had time for all those portraits above. Then…

From behind the bushes and trees stormed out Lu’s friends that had been hiding all along waiting for the signal to come out. They carried them, cheered and celebrated… and I just waited, waited until she would catch my eye. It’s not very easy to keep shooting all the while you are crying behind the camera.. it takes a bit of discipline to keep your hands from shaking.. until she came running over and I am so happy Lester was right behind me to capture it all.

Love this one above so much – the girls way of celebrating vs. the boys. It hit her as we held on to her tight, this was happening… we cried and laughed and cried so more, but out of so much happiness for her.

It look us a couple tries to get these group shots, but here we are, all that were present at the park together with the soon to be wed. As we all settled from the excitement, I took them away to capture a few portraits, because I knew these happy faces were way too good to pass up.

“The reality of it is so much more… the immense joy we have cannot be contained. I don’t think words do justice, not for this. I’m in disbelief and living a vivid dream in which I don’t want to awake. But reality strikes again. And this is real. This is us. This really happened. (Is this real life?) Pure bliss, enchantment and magic is running through us both. I could not be happier with this man. To my king; you are undoubtedly and without fail the person I thought could never exist for me. But atlas this dream is real. I thank you the joy you bring into my life on a daily basis. I thank your parents for raising you as the man you are today. You are my light, my best friend, my lover, person, confident, advisor, my man. I fall in love with you every single day. I lean on you, as you lean on me. Everything we conquer is together, everything we build is together. There is no my family or yours but ours. I love you endlessly and with all of me. Forever yours.” – Jael

The sun gave us such a wonderful ending to this perfect day. I can only say thank you to Lu for giving her exactly what she wanted. For being the thoughtful groom that makes his bride happy. This is just a little stone in the great wall of stories that you will build together. One memory that will last you a lifetime, I’m just so happy we have it captured so that even when your hair is gray and maybe have forgotten each others names, you can be taken back to this moment and how you felt. How fast your heart was beating that she felt it racing by just being near you moments away from taking a knee. How you jumped with happiness and wrapped yourself around his neck over and over and kept asking if this was real life. What happy smiles actually look like. And how this ring is a symbol of all of the wonderful things that are yet to come. I love you both so much… once again, CONGRATULATIONS!