Dreamy Mountain Proposal

When Christian reached out to me earlier this Spring I was SO thrilled. He emailed me and asked if I would be interested in capturing his proposal to his sweet girlfriend, Bailey, at the Wichita Wildlife Refuge. This proposal sounded incredibly special and I was so honored when he mentioned she loved my work. So obviously, I said yes, booked my flights and rental car, and I was ready to go from the start! I did not know much about Christian or Bailey before the proposal which was an interesting start for me. Normally, for an engagement or wedding, I am in consistent contact with the bride. Sometimes we get coffee or we have several phone call leading up to the special day. But because this was a proposal, I really had to stay under the radar.

But once the day came, I was so excited to meet both of them. But there was a moment when the videographer and I thought the weather was about to make this proposal super Notebook style... it was raining SOOOO hard about 15-20 minutes before they got there. I actually thought there might be a tornado. But God cleared up the skies and honestly you would really have no idea from most of the pictures! The lighting was crazy for some of this shoot because it changed pretty consistently. Sometimes it looked overcast (at the beginning) and other times it looked like super blue skies and sunny (near the end). But I actually loved it because it gave B+C a ton of different lighting photos to choose from.

The proposal was so sweet and her ring is BEAUTIFUL. But the proposal was not it, Christian and his videographer friend Jackson thought of the cutest idea following the proposal. There is a super cool dead tree at the location (pics below) and before B+C got there, Jackson set up a few empty letters and a huge ballon next to the tree. The balloon had a few strings attached to it so they could write love letters to each other, attach them to the balloon, and watch them float off. It was such a creative idea!

Overall, my favorite part of the whole proposal was watching B+C's authentic love for one another. They met their freshman year in college and were friends for about 5 months, then started dating. You can just tell they have a genuine and sweet love for one another. It was such a privilege to capture. Not only that, but I was only with them for a little over an hour and I could immediately tell how amazing they are!! I am so thankful I was able to get to know them and capture this moment. Here is a glimpse into their gallery: