This is probably going to be my favorite post of the year, and for darn good reason!! Most of you will recognize the pretty lady in this post as my associate photographer Kayla who has been with me as an assistant for over two years and probaly close to 100 shoots. Needless to say, I flippin LOVE this girl and I am sooooo excited to tell this little story about Kayla and the day that she finds out she is finally getting to plan her own wedding.
Meet Rob: (He's the one with the normal-sized ears) *photo credit to Kayla Folks (i assume anyway... I stole it from Facebook) ;)
Rob and Kayla have been dating for 8 years! WHAAAATTTT?? Yup! I said EIGHT YEARS. Crazy kids. Anyhow, Rob finally decides to pop THE question, so he calls me up to see if I'll capture the whole thing (Kayla had dropped a few hints that she wanted this to happen). Um, yes, please! The most romantic day in the life of one of my favorite people? You KNOW i'll be there!
Fast forward a bit. Rob tells me he wants to propose at... da, da, da...
BILTMORE!! (of course he does, it is Kayla's favorite place in the whole world... She has this amazing and crazy-strong internal attachment to it... If she perhaps had another life before this one, she was DEFINITELY a Vanderbilt).
Following are a few weeks of playing Kayla BIG TIME!! Kayla and I are pretty tight, so one would think keeping a secret like this would be pretty darn tough, but what she doesn't know about me is that I am the sneakiest person I know!! There is not much in this world I LOVE more than a surprise gone right!
So, fast forward a few days...Kayla tells me she is going out of town to the Biltmore and muses about a possible proposal. I just listen and then tell her how happy I'll be for her, but also a tiny bit bummed I can't shoot it since I have a wedding on Saturday AND one on Sunday the weekend they'll be there.
We have a few more conversations like this, and then early last week, she texted me and (sounding pretty bummed) says she is pretty certain this won't be the weekend. Not sure WHAT Rob did, but he must be just as sneaky as I am. ;)
So, Sunday morning, bright and early, I head up to Biltmore... Rob wanted to propose on the terrace across from the house, so I headed on up there and found myself a big tree to hide behind. I quickly discovered, however, that that was just not going to work. All the pictures would be at funny angles and there was NO chance of getting the house in any shots... so... in typical Jennie-fashion, I formulated a funny plan. I roped two tourists into helping me out... I had them sit in the grass on the lawn above the terrace and I laid in the grass behind them.
Here's Rob having to text me because even HE couldn't figure out where i was. Good thing Kayla is a photo-nerd and was so into her picture taking... she didn't even notice me popping up and waving to Rob. ;)
That's when it happened...
Rob simply walked back over to Kayla, dropped to one knee (loosing a flip-flop in the transition) and pulled out a ring. Here's the whole story:
A few minutes passed of more kissy-face sweetness and Rob tells Kayla I'm there. She screams, takes off up the hill to where I'm hidden,(with one broken foot I might add),so I pop up, run down, scream a little myself, shed a few tears and snap a few more pics of the glowy aftermath...
Seriously the sweetest thing in the world to witness!! I love you Kayla! Now, let's plan a wedding!!! ;)