[Intro]
Where to begin… lets start at the very beginning. Danielle is Ryan’s niece, the daughter of Ryan’s eldest of five siblings and only sister, Cheri. To know Danielle is to love her. The words beautiful, loving, sweet, and nurturing come to mind when I think of her. Chad is a wonderful friend of ours, who we came to know well through the city softball team on which Ryan and Chad both play. Long before Chad & Danielle became a couple, our daughter Joslyn called him “Uncle Chad”. Chad is a guy that doesn’t come around every day. Aside from his striking good looks and charm, he truly is one of the nicest guys I have ever met. Chad & Danielle met at a Christmas Eve party at our house in 2007. I distinctly remember Chad approaching me in the kitchen that evening and asking me “to hook a brother up”! At that time Danielle was not, um, completely single, so I told Chad he would have to wait. After that evening, Chad sent Danielle a light-hearted Facebook message telling her to let him know if she was ever in town and wanted to hang out. Fast-forward almost exactly one year: Danielle found herself, um, freshly and excitedly single. The Facebook message sent by that devastatingly handsome friend of her Uncle Ryan’s still lingering in her mind, she decided “What the heck? Why not have a little fun?” and messaged Chad back. They hung out, realized they had so much in common, and almost instantly fell in love. They were together 24-7 when she was in town, and when she was away they spent hours on the phone. Family and friends were all betting on how long it would take until Chad proposed.
[The Main Event!]
Chad approached Ryan & I several months ago with the idea of capturing his proposal to Danielle on camera. We tossed a few ideas around, and ulti
mately decided on Rosemary Beach as the perfect setting. All we had to do was to figure out a way for Chad to get Danielle out there on a specific day, and not be suspicious should she see Ryan peering out behin
d some bushes with a camera! We decided it would be best if we told Danielle that we needed some stock imagery of a “attractive, mid-twenties couple” for a magazine and she agreed to try to talk Chad into it. Chad pretending he did not really want to do this, reluctantly agreed. Danielle fell for the story 100%, and was really excited for their little “photo-shoot”! The day of the mock shoot, Chad had hidden the ring box in Ryan’s camera bag, and we all secretly planned a code phrase that Chad would say when he was ready to pop the question. At some point, Chad snuck the ring out of Ryan’s bag and had it in his back pocket. After walking around for about 45 minutes and pretending to take pictures for the magazine, Chad finally said the code phrase! Chad was really nervous, and was sweating bullets and acting antsy all day… it was so cute. Chad and Danielle were standing together in one of the more private courtyards, and Ryan was supposed to say “Hey Chad, why don’t you act like you’re going to propose for this shot?” Not waiting on Ryan’s cue, Chad asked “Hey Ryan, how about I pretend like I’m proposing?” I’m in the corner at this point, pretending to get something out of Ryan’s camera bag so I prompt “Yeah, Chad, do it, that will be so funny!” So Chad takes the lead and starts to propose. Danielle, still thinking Chad is being a dork and just joking around, is saying “Chad, stop joking around.. be serious!” Chad is like “Danielle, just let me say this…” and she is still like “Come on, Ryan needs to hurry up and get these shots before the sun comes back out from behind the clouds so just stop messing around!!” Chad then starts pulling the ring out from his pocket (all the while she is still insisting that he stop messing around). When she finally saw the blue Tacori box it hit her that he was not joking around and that THIS was really happening! Chad said some sweet words to which I overheard her say “You’re gonna make me cry!”. As he got on his knees to present the ring, she of course said
“YES!” upon which they embraced. It was one of the best moments I have ever witnessed, and Ryan and I are so blessed that Chad allowed us to be there for and capture these moments on camera. So, without further adieu, here are the images from “THE PROPOSAL!”
