Somewhere in the Caribbean Sea, sometime in the dark of night between May 31st and June 1st...
It wasn't completely a surprise. Nate and I have known for a while that we wanted to be together forever. Of course, knowing and sealing that commitment with a diamond(s) are two very different things. One opens the floodgates of the "now" and all the baggage and beauty that implies, the other keeps things in the safety of the future. After many late night talks about our future, our dreams, our goals, our desire for dogs and kids, and our mind-blowing ability to work so flawlessly as team ( ;) ) both for our business and in life in general, we decided that we were ready to start walking in the direction of an "I Do". As wedding photographers, we're constantly immersed in the business of marriage so we were a little weary of diving into it all. But we talked about it, and since we knew that we wanted it, it was silly to delay the promise of it any longer. It's kind of like that famous line from When Harry Met Sally: "When you realize you want to spend the rest of your life with somebody, you want the rest of your life to start as soon as possible."
I'm extremely picky when it comes to my jewelry so I wanted to pick out my ring. After much protest and debate, Nate finally agreed and I fell in love with one. It was purchased and then hidden and never spoken of again (except my constant begging to know if it was somewhere in the house). Nate and I had set a tentative date of early 2011, late 2010 to tie the knot and Nate had been leading me to believe that we wouldn't be getting engaged until later in the year.
The second night of our cruise, the Captain's formal night, he was dressed in a brand new dark gray suit that I made him buy and I was in my favorite little black dress and pointy heels. Our friends wanted some pictures so we decided to do a night shoot on the cruise. We walked all around the upper deck trying to find enough lighting for some cool pictures. We snapped a few of them and let them snap a few of us. Nate found a spot with some great lighting. They offered to take pictures of us there so we set the cameras and handed them over telling them our ideas for composition. After a few poses Nate suggested a shot with my back turned to him, looking out over the water. I turned and looked out over the rail. I heard the shutter and saw the flash behind me. After a few moments I grabbed my butt and lamented that these pictures were just going to be of my derrière. Nate tuned to me and said, "Becka, go look at those and make sure they look okay for you to edit them." (This is a common interaction between us since I do all of our post processing.) I walked over to the camera for me to see the screen and started clicking through images of Nathan on one knee behind me holding something. I turned around to him quickly to see him behind me on one knee with the ring held out towards me. I then had a complete time-has-stopped-and-I'm-floating-outside-of-my-head experience where I kept telling myself, "Pay attention so you can remember what he says to you!" I do remember his words and they were extremely sweet but I'm going to keep them for myself. ;) I said yes and was instantly spun around in circles. These
images of the whole event were captured by our friends and I think they did such a fabulous job! I feel so blessed to have had them there to share the moment with us!
The pose set up...
Me: "I feel like everyone is staring at my butt!"
You can see Nate getting down on his knee behind me when I realize what's going on...
The illusive and infamous victory dance (reserved only for the most epic wins)
And... the goods:
