Tim and I had been talking about rebranding our business for several months, and we knew during the process we would need to invest in good headshots of us that match our style of film photography and are cohesive with the rest of our content. Almost instantly, we knew we wanted to hire my long time friend, Jen Jar, who moved out to Southern California a few years ago from Virginia, where she and I originally met through a group of local photographers. We had already been planning a trip to Los Angeles to visit friends, so it worked out seamlessly for us to plan for a day of that trip to be dedicated to meeting up with Jen and catching up while she took photos of us in the most beautiful place ever – but, what I didn’t know was that Tim had another set of plans up his sleeve that were unfolding seamlessly as well.

Tim didn’t sleep a wink the night before our session with Jen. I didn’t find this to be too unusual because he struggles with insomnia on and off, so I just figured it could be a mixture of that and the time change. It should also be noted that I had suspected Tim was going to propose a handful of times over the year and a half prior, since getting married was often a point of conversation for us from the beginning. So, by this point, I had zero expectations that it would happen in California having been wrong so many times.

I was absolutely speechless when we arrived to our location. It was perfect. Jen brought her boyfriend, Alan, with her to assist and he began to take a video of Jen (and of us), and I didn’t really think anything of it – just assumed he was making video content for Jen’s website or something. Tim knelt down on one knee… and asked me whether he should cuff his pants inward our outward. Jen and I fixed his pants and we moved on. When we started the photos, Jen began to direct us to hold hands and walk away from her. As we walked through the grass, these big thorn branches started to get stuck in the bottom of my dress. Laughing, we made it to the point she directed us to and back, and Jen started helping me unravel the thorns from my dress. I heard Tim ask from behind me, “So, where do you guys wanna eat dinner?” and suddenly Jen backed up and put her camera up to her face – I was confused, and turned around to see Tim on one knee again. I thought he was still trying to get his pants situated, so I stared at him, and he stared back at me. For what felt like an hour. Until I realized, he wasn’t fixing his pants, and he was holding his hand out to me. And there was a box in his hand. And there was a ring in the box. And his pants are fine. Through tears, he managed to choke out the words “Will you marry me?”, which reminded me I needed to answer him. I said yes.

 

photographed by Jen Jar Photography |  film processed by Photo Vision Prints