When you’re an engagement and wedding photographer, and you find out that TODAY is National Proposal Day, you halt all current blogging calendar plans and blog about your own proposal (as told by Neil!!)! I first blogged our proposal story back in the summer when I was highlighting our story counting up to our 7th wedding anniversary. If you missed it, here are the other blog posts in that series:

Our Story:
God’s Timing
The First Few Months
A Decision and a Promise
Dating in College
The Wedding Day

{image is from the re-enactment that occurred later that evening for documentation purposes}

If you didn’t know this already, Rachael plans out her blog posts as far ahead as humanly possible. She knows exactly when she’s blogging what wedding, etc. So when she was building her “blog calendar” for May, June, and July, somehow, every Monday for the foreseeable future turned out to be about our relationship. She didn’t plan it… She had seven ideas, seven blog posts, and she (completely by accident) managed to start blogging our relationship story exactly seven mondays from our seven year anniversary – which happens to fall on a Monday this year.
Rachael was very excited when she realized this and, of course, told me about it. I thought it was cool, along with her idea to have me write one of the blog posts… So, here I am! Blogging about the biggest thing I had most control over throughout our entire relationship… the proposal!

It was just another July 1st and yet it wasn’t. I knew my whole life would change after this day. The first Saturday in July was “Thunder over Eddy Bay” Firework show. We had gone every year since we started dating. I had the ring, I asked her dad, and I knew she would say yes but I was still nervous.

We picked the ring out together. If you know her you know she knows what she wants. The only thing is that she didn’t know when it was going to happen. I at least wanted that to be a surprise. Between getting the ring and my proposal we went to the St. Louis Zoo but I didn’t do it there. We went to a Cardinal’s baseball game but I didn’t do it there either. She wouldn’t have liked being the center of attention in that kind of crowd anyway.

I planned the whole proposal. Rachael and I took her dad’s new boat out by ourselves for the first time. The week before her dad took me out in the boat so I could practice parking it where I planned to pop the question. Rachael and I arrived back at the dock and tied off the boat. I took a little longer so she could get in front of me. As she was walking back toward the house I pulled the ring box from my pocket got down on one knee and said her name. She turned and her hands immediately covered her mouth. I think you all know the rest of that story.