Boy, am I excited about this post today! I met Alex and Amanda while I was in school! Amanda and I were in the same society. We actually served as officers together one semester and bonded because we were both townies and we were both 19. We still aren’t sure how that happened! But we had a lot of fun planning events and rallying together with our group of girls. I was in music, and she was an artist, and we had a few mutual art friends.

Later, while I was in grad school, we then ended up in a Discipleship Group together with her sisters and her cousin. Seriously, I was the only one not related to them! But it was such a blast getting to know all of them and studying the Word together. My last semester of school, we ended up in a Biblical Counseling class together as well! She’s been such a great friend over the years! And she helped me so much at my wedding. I can’t wait to share in her special day too!

I met Alex because he was a music major and was often around the fine arts building practicing. He is an incredibly talented saxophonist, and one of my best friends from college was also a saxophonist, so I guess that’s our main connection! Since we are both music majors, we also share a lot of mutual friends too! Alex and Amanda are two of the most genuine people you’ll ever meet! I’ll share more about their story when I share their engagement session next week, but for now I want to tell you about their proposal!

Alex texted me about a month before he planned to propose and asked if I wanted to help him out with something. I immediately knew what he was talking about and freaked out in the middle of American Eagle with Matt. In a rare trip to the mall, we were getting something for Matt. I still don’t remember what we were buying, but I do remember feeling so giddy in the middle of the store and everyone probably thought I was crazy!!! I happily agreed, and he told me he planned to propose to her one Friday evening in September.

He settled on the Hyatt Regency as the perfect spot since it would be indoors and because they went on one of their first dates there to look at the Christmas trees! I planned to meet Amanda for coffee and then I was supposed to lead her to the Hyatt. Well, I had to come up with a good reason to get her there!! So I decided to pretend that I had a couple that wanted their photos done there, and I asked if she wanted to come with me to help me test the light since I’d never shot there.

I tried to be casual about it, so I just said, “hey! wanna meet up for coffee on Friday downtown?” She agreed, but then she said “what if you just come over since you haven’t seen my house yet?” Uh oh. That wasn’t the plan!!! So I quickly said well… actually… we should meet downtown because I was hoping you could do me a favor and help me test the light at the Hyatt!

Hahaha I thought for sure that she would suspect something, but she agreed. I thought I was so bad at keeping secrets, so I just kept adding layers to the story. We planned to meet for coffee, then go to the Hyatt, then we were going to get dinner at Maple Street Biscuit Co and then go to her house afterwards for tea. I didn’t find out until later that they actually aren’t open that late – thank goodness we didn’t check hahah! I even told her that I could stay a long time at her house because Matt was busy that night. More layers that weren’t exactly true…

I thought that if it was just me and Amanda, I might be really nervous and spoil the surprise, so I asked our friend Sarah Marko to come along too. She’s also a photographer, so I asked her if she would capture a wide shot of the proposal since I would be capturing closer shots.

The day before the proposal, I met Alex at the Hyatt and he explained his plan to me. I was going to pretend to be taking headshots of her. We’d stop at different places around the lobby and eventually when we got to “the spot,” he would come out from his hiding place and surprise her. I was so excited and so nervous! I’m so glad that Sarah was there.

I was actually so excited and nervous that I thought for sure Amanda would suspect something, so I had a few friends praying for me that the Lord would calm my nerves and help me not spoil the surprise. As soon as Amanda arrived to meet me for coffee, I felt so calm and relaxed! I was so nervous before, but God really did help me to be natural and not do anything weird to make her suspect she was about to be proposed to!

After Sarah, Amanda, and I chatted for a little bit at Methodical Coffee, we decided to make our way to the Hyatt. We ran into one of my former music teachers downtown on the way! He asked what we were doing downtown and I slyly said, “oh, we’re just going to do some photos and test some lighting!” Whew, I didn’t spoil anything!

We finally got there, and there was a music event happening outdoors beside the Hyatt! There were A LOT of people! It was pretty crazy, but thankfully since everyone was outside that meant that there weren’t a lot of people inside! We went in, and just before we went in Amanda mentioned that she should put on some lip gloss. I thought, “oh my goodness, she knows what’s happening.” but really she was just putting it on because she wanted to look nice in case I snapped any good headshots of her! Hah!

We stopped at a couple places and then decided to head over to the walkway with the windows behind it. Before we turned the corner, Sarah pretended to take a phone call so that she could be far away for the shot, and she texted Alex that we were there.

We got to the spot, I took her photo a few times, and Alex came up from behind her. It was SO sweet and she was SO surprised! Yes!!! Mission accomplished!!!! I’ll let the photos tell the rest of the story, but I am SO excited for these two sweet friends! I couldn’t think straight afterwards because I was so happy, so I’m glad that we got some good photos of them together afterwards for a mini “just engaged” session!

Amanda and Alex, I can’t wait for your wedding! Your Downtown Greenville proposal was perfect!

Downtown Greenville Proposal at The Hyatt Regency

She was so surprised!!!!!

This is the shot that Sarah captured! I LOVE IT.     

The “did that just happen?!” faces kill me! So excited.

I think it was around this time that she said, “wait, so you don’t have a couple that wants photos here?” and Alex said, “we’re the couple!”

Isn’t her ring so stunning and unique?! It suits her SO WELL. 

I think this is right after I said, “Guys, you just got ENGAGED!!!!!!”         

The rest of these shots were taken 3 minutes before someone from The Landmark Building came out and said we weren’t supposed to shoot there because it’s private property. Oops!!! Thankfully we had just finished up when he came out, so we actually got all the shots we needed before they headed to dinner!       

After the proposal, Alex planned a dinner with a lot of Amanda’s friends! He did such a great job planning and making it special for Amanda. I can’t wait for their wedding at the end of this year!