We LOVE going back to our hometown for engagement sessions! Downtown Danville was great to us and Bill and I had such a wonderful day photographing Erica and Kyle! Looking at these images reminds me so much why I LOVE Fall! Holy wow, those colors!! Erica and Kyle are such an awesome couple and made our job WAYYYY to easy! We can not wait for their wedding day coming up in only two and half months at The Atkinson Barn!!!
We love sharing how our couples got engaged, so enjoy their proposal story below!
How did he propose? Erica told us all about it! What a story it is! This proposal story is really two parts; the first part of their story is the ring itself…
Erica said, “Last year (2016), Kyle’s parents didn’t know what to get us for Christmas, so we all went on a cruise, and that’s what his parents gave us. It was a holiday cruise (we were on it for New Year’s), and it stopped in Grand Turk, Turks and Caicos; San Juan, Puerto Rico; St. Thomas, USVI; and the Bahamas. At this point in our relationship, we had already talked about getting married, and we were completely on the same page. The Caribbean is known for a company called Diamonds International, which is a direct wholesale diamond outlet directly from De Beers. While in Grand Turk, we came across a Diamonds International near the port, and we went in because Kyle wanted to get an idea of what I liked. We shopped around, looked at a ton of different rings, bands, cuts, and combinations. I finally found a band I loved and the guy we were working with found a setting for the middle – a necklace pendant set in yellow gold. Eventually, Kyle asked the guy, “So what kind of deal can you give me?” and I was shocked…I said, “Are we buying something today?!” He said, “If you like it, it feels right to me. Does it feel right to you?” Of course it felt right, silly. Since they dealt with people on cruises almost daily, he knew that we were on a tight schedule to get back to the ship before it left. At this point, we’ve befriended the guys working at the store (who have given us beer while we shopped) and the Shopping Ambassador from the cruise line has come in and asked what we’re buying. She’s excited, we’re excited, Kyle’s brother and sister are excited, and the diamond guys are excited. It’s around 12:30pm at this point (the boat leaves at 2:30pm), and they all assured us that the jeweler would have the ring ready within two hours. This guy kind of had his work cut out for him because the band needed to be re-sized, the pendant re-set in white gold to match the band, and it all needed to be put together in two hours. Kyle and I walk around the island near the port and finally find a Margaritaville with enough Wi-Fi signal to call my parents and tell them that he’s buying a ring, but that we’re not engaged yet (so chill out, guys). A few drinks later and around 2pm, we head back to Diamonds International to pick up the ring, and they let us know that it’s not quite ready yet. Cool, we’ll wait. So we wait. Until about 2:20pm. Finally, the diamond guys tell us to come with them to the next store over where the jeweler is working on the ring so that we can start walking back to the boat as soon as it’s ready. At this point, we’ve started to get a little concerned that we’re going to miss the boat, but the diamond guy assured us it’d be ready, and if not, he had a big house and would help us get to San Juan the next day (thoughtful, hospitable, but really not the ideal situation, dude). Meanwhile, the Shopping Ambassador from the ship is with us, and she’s told us this whole time that the boat won’t leave without her, so she’ll stay with us until we get the ring. Finally, right at 2:30pm, the ring is ready, they give it to us, and we start to walk out. The diamond guys yell at us on the way out and ask if they can take a quick picture with us, which we do. As soon as we all pose, the boat’s horn blows. The Shopping Ambassador who promised to stay with us darts out of the store (thanks), so we grab everything and run, too. We make it back to the boat just in time; the crew was lifting the ramp as we run up to the boat, and we were literally the last people back on.”
The second part is the proposal…
Erica shared, “As for the actual proposal, Kyle and I decided to celebrate being together for one year with a ski trip to Pennsylvania this past January. We found a modest ski resort right outside of Scranton called Montage Mountain and decided to take a long weekend there. Neither of us had ever been to Scranton, but the skiing turned out to be pretty nice! It was just us, and we had a blast. The last day we were there was our one year anniversary, so we spent the day skiing, hanging out in the lodge, and just enjoying ourselves. When we were done, we walked back to the car, and as we were loading the car, I turn around and Kyle was on one knee. He proposed, and I happily agreed to be his wife. It was just us, it was intimate, and it was perfect.”
Ahhh, they are the sweetest! We can’t wait for their wedding in just 2.5 short months at The Atkinson Barn, in Danville, VA!! YAY! We love going home for Wedding Days!!
Want to see more? Check out Kelly and Drew’s Firehouse Engagement Session Sara and Wes’s In-home Engagement Session and Catherine and Jeff’s Libby Hill RVA Session
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