“You are truly a blessing in my life.
You have helped me realize true happiness,
How to enjoy the little things in life.
I love and respect your unwavering support,
your fool hardy silliness, and most of all,
your heart.”
-Jae Y.
I’d like to share an extremely romantic story of one of my best friends. To be apart of their magical engagement was indescribable and a memory I will cherish forever. This blog post will be a little different than previous posts due to my personal relationship with this couple. Please read on for the full story or feel free to scroll directly to the photos!
I met Laura and Jae years ago through mutual friends. Over the years, Laura and I grew closer together, and today, she is one of my closest girlfriends. The two have been together for eight years and to celebrate, they decided to plan their first trip to Europe over the holidays. The plan was to visit New York, Paris, Venice, and Barcelona. I knew they had been planning for months but a couple of weeks before they were scheduled to fly, I was contacted by Jae. He revealed his plans to propose in Paris on Christmas Eve! He asked if I was willing to meet them in Paris, surprise Laura, and capture the entire proposal on camera.
The days leading up to the proposal was filled with excitement and butterflies amongst the few close friends who knew. Although I had seen the Eiffel Tower before, this was my first time seeing it at sunrise. The beautiful morning light in the background of such an iconic piece of architecture made my jaw drop. Fifteen minutes later, their Uber pulled up. My heart began pounding. To avoid Laura from recognizing me from a distance, I was dressed in disguise from head to toe as a tourist casually taking pictures of the beautiful scenery. The stars aligned for us that morning.
“The moment truly took me by surprise because although we had talked about getting married I didn’t think it would happen until after Jae was finished with his masters degree. He was able to catch me off guard because I created the schedule for that day and first up was to see the Eiffel Tower! Our morning was calm and the drive to Trocadero was exciting as it was our first full day in Paris. Once we arrived, I couldn’t take my eyes off the amazing view of the Eiffel Tower. After we got to what I thought was the perfect spot, I asked Jae to snap a couple of photos of me. As I was looking at the photos and trying to decide if I liked them; Jae grabbed my hand, swung me around and got down on his knee. I was fighting back tears as he began to express just how much I mean to him. Jae is intelligent, the life of the party, and the one people love to laugh with. I wouldn’t exactly call him a hopeless romantic and so I know that the time and effort that he put into the proposal was his way of doing something out of this world for me! He stepped out of his comfort zone to surprise me with the most romantic proposal ever. After I said yes he directed my attention to yet another surprise… one of my best friends… Jenny snapping photos and jumping around!! I couldn’t hold back the tears any longer as I was filled with so many emotions and my heart just melted. Seeing her made me realize just how much love and attention to detail he put in to making this a perfect moment for me.” -Laura M.
Looking back, Jae’s proposal was one of the most romantic proposal stories I’ve ever heard, let alone having had the opportunity to share the experience. So much thought went into planning the proposal and when everything finally unfolded, it was nothing short of magical.
Following the proposal, we spent the rest of the day drinking coffee, eating croissants and of course shopping! To Laura’s surprise, Jae and I had one final surprise in store for her. The following day, on Christmas Day, we would be shooting their engagement session. I prepared a white gown and fur coat for her in my luggage. We ended up picking some peonies at a local florist near our hotel, and the rest is history.
Head on over here to take a peek at their engagement session from Christmas morning.
