The Proposal & How it Happened
The proposal happened on Kiki's birthday, her present was to go stargazing for the first time at a national park over an hour away and leading up to it about everything that could go wrong did go wrong. Fortunately, Gnome has some sort of dumb luck that as soon as everything goes to shit, it suddenly gets better. First, we almost run out of gas in the middle of nowhere with no signal to help us find a gas station. We then came upon the most out of the way mom and pop gas station we have ever seen, right before we ran out of gas. Then we got to the hotel but learned that the travel website does not keep up to date with the locations they do business with, as the place we booked was actually closed for months and had vines growing over the doors. We went to get lunch at a place nearby that Gnome planned ahead of time in order for us to think about what to do next with the hotel, but the lunch place ended up being closed for a private event. It was at this point Gnome also realized that his plan to propose under the stars would not work as the location had strict lighting guidelines and we would not be able to see anything. We made our way around the town looking for somewhere to eat and stumbled upon an art gallery that doubled as a pub, a much better lunch spot than previously planned. After lunch, we determined that we would just sleep in the car that night as we really had no other options, and we were not going to let it ruin Kiki's birthday. On the way, we drove past a small hotel and discovered they had a vacancy, for less than the cost of the other room no less. So we now had a better place to stay and had a much better lunch, and we made our way to the national park. On the way, we drove past a mountain overlook, and Gnome decided it would be the perfect place to pop the question, and after telling Kiki he was getting her "birthday present", he grabbed the ring and proposed. She said "Yay!" then after a brief happy dance, Gnome reminded her she hadn't exactly answered him yet. She then responded with a resounding "Yes!" and they celebrated by spending the rest of the night stargazing. The day went from one of the most stressful things to one of the best experiences ever.
Advice from the Couple
For us, there was no question. A pandemic was NOT going to get in the way of us getting married, although we wish the decision hadn't needed to be made. While the big event would have certainly been more organized and more theatrical the point of a wedding isn't the dance floor or even the tiered-wedding cake. It's you and the love of your life committing yourselves to each other come hell or high water. And hey, what is a stronger statement to the universe that you're built to withstand anything than getting married in the middle of a pandemic! Even though many things went wrong due to the nature of the event, we still don't regret having it. Besides, now we get to take everything we learned NOT to do at the micro wedding and hopefully implement changes for the big event!
To be continued...
This micro wedding is only a small taste of the bigger celebration next year. Kiki & Gnome are genuinely one of my favorite couples to photograph, but if I was being honest, every couple is my favorite. haha. I can't wait to capture Part 2. To see their Engagement Story, check that out here and enjoy their micro wedding!
