Here you’ll find information on the venue, specific dates, as well as some other fun stuff to keep you occupied. I’ll start off with the story of how the proposal went:

Analysis

I’m a big “surprise” guy and I figured this would be my chance at one of the biggest surprises of our lifetime. Several months ago I started brainstorming ideas for this spectactular event. A firefighter friend of mine proposed to his wife by taking her on a helicopter tour over his firehouse where other firemen had written out “Marry Me” in fire hoses. How romantic, right? Makes you all warm and fuzzy inside just thinking about it. Well I had to one-up that. I wanted to be classic but still be unique. We needed to go someplace classic…

Epiphany

New York! “Genius!” I thought to myself. “I could propose right in front of the Christmas tree in Rockefeller Center!” After that I thought my work was done. This was going to be easy: I book a trip, hide the ring in my pocket, and pop the question right in the same spot Kevin McAllister was reunited with his family. Bing bang boom. Well, as I began to mention more of the trip, purchased tickets, discussed activities, etc. it had become obvious that something special was going to happen in New York. I had thought that with the many months ahead of planning little things here and there the whole magic of the trip would kinda fly under the radar. I was wrong. Thankfully, we still had a couple months until our trip so I wasn’t completely crunched for time. Also, I had been speaking with my photography partners Charise and Jen about my plan. Charise was adamant about photographing the proposal. Us being in New York just wasn’t going to allow that to happen. And just then… it was decided.

Genius

So Charise, Jen and I were talking on the way back from a wedding and Charise had suggested we modify the styled shoot she had planned for Lindsay and I. See, Charise and a few other fantastic photographers had recently started For The Love Studios and Lindsay and I were on their guinea pig list. We agreed that sometime during our shoot, I would surprisingly propose. So we set up the date a few weeks before New York. Now I was pushing NY and passively talking about the shoot. I didn’t want to set off any alarms. After a month of searching I found the perfect ring and all that remained was to decide how it was going to happen.

Proposal

The day had come. We were getting ready for the shoot; all gussied up in our nice purple clothes so we could get our photos taken. On the way to the venue I was a little more quiet than I wanted but I didn’t want to force any awkward breaks-of-silence. My hands were clammy so I tried my best not to hold Lindsay’s hand for too long. So far so good. Charise, Jen and Steph were all prepared and ready for us to just sit down and start. The first scene was a coffee shop which was littered with items from our first date, our hobbies and our colors. It was so beautiful. We played Scrabble, peek-a-boo, and even switched roles where I was crocheting as she stood with a basketball. Next we moved onto the driveway for a few shots of us standing in front of the garden. The light coming through the trees was gorgeous and Lindsay looked beautiful!

The fallback codeword (had something gone terribly wrong) was “PINEAPPLE.” Don’t ask me why, but it was what it was. The normal go-code was when Charise and Jen changed out to their 75-200 lenses. With a tiny smile they changed out their lenses and we moved onto the third and final stop on our shoot. In the corner of the driveway was a chair, my grandfather’s guitar, a Miller soap box and a box of books. The idea was to have me sit down and begin playing the guitar while Lindsay stood awkwardly behind me. Charise would direct me to hand her a book so she wouldn’t look so awkward. I get the direction, I hand her the book and Lindsay immediately flips it open. I had to scramble a bit and set down the guitar safely in its case.

I proceeded to get down on my knee and I asked her to marry me. She, of course, half-jokingly asked if I was “serious” to which I replied “yes.” She then said “Of course I will!” We called our parents and all the standard stuff you do after proposing. It’s still a blur for me to be honest. Thankfully we had the lovely photographers Charise, Jen and Steph to capture that moment in our lives forever. Below you’ll find links to the incredible video as well as absolutely phenomenal photos taken on that day. I want to thank those three ladies for all the work and help they provided to make the proposal a story to tell our kids. Thank you.

Proposal Video

Proposal Photos