As promised, today I will be talking about the proposal! Some of you may have already heard this story but I love telling it! :) For those of you that haven't...enjoy! All right. So one day, a few weeks before the actual proposal, Jimmy and I were sitting at the table having our morning coffee and I noticed that he looked kind of sad. Not weepy-tears sad, just sort of off.

"What's wrong?" I could tell he was waiting for me to ask.

"I had a bad dream," He frowned.

"A bad dream?" I raised my eyebrow incredulously. "What about?"

"I had a dream that I proposed and you said you didn't like the ring," He maintained the frown.

I couldn't keep from laughing! It seemed like such a silly thing to be upset about! For one, it was just a dream, and for two, I would like any ring if it was coming from him. I proceeded to tell him just that, but he insisted that I show him a ring I would like. So that's what I did, not thinking any thing of it. Normally Jimmy's not very good at keeping secrets so I figured if he had something up his sleeve I would know.

Jimmy, being the trooper that he is, let me tell this story to all of our friends and family, laughing along with us as I turned his "bad dream" into a joke. Little did I know, the joke was on me!

A few days later, our buddy Ryan called early in the morning claiming that he needed Jimmy's help on shoot because Chadwell broke his finger. We have worked on many projects together so, again, I didn't think anything of it. Ryan even sent us a picture of Chadwell's broken finger solidifying any doubt I may have had about what was really going on. I later found out that Chadwell actually did break his finger, but they didn't need help on a shoot. It was all just a ruse to get Jimmy out of the house so he could go purchase the ring!

The following week we had a shoot scheduled for an up-and-coming travel app called microtrip.it (Check it out! It's going to be awesome!) The film is about friends going on a road-trip so we called Phil, one of the guys who is going to be standing up with Jimmy on our big day, and asked him to tag along. Phil, always down for anything, said yes! When he got to our house, Jimmy apparently hid the ring in Phil's bag, knowing that I would never find it there. After loading down the fusion with enough film gear to shoot a full length movie, we hit the road. What an eventful trip it was! (And I'm not just talking about the proposal!)

When we entered Kansas, we ran into a freak blizzard that had me abandoning my position as driver. I usually don't mind a little snow, but a blizzard in April is freaking ridiculous!

Big thanks to Phil for taking over! Further down the road, we saw signs that I-70 was closed on the Colorado/ Kansas border due to the weather, so I woke up my sleeping personal travel guide (that's Jimmy btw :)). He rerouted and took us 200 miles south, bringing us out of the storm yet adding 6 hours to the trip, all the while asking me if I was okay. I didn't understand why he was asking me that since I wasn't the one driving! We reached our destination at 1am that night!

The following day, we drove to Lake Powell to camp on the beach. Talk about a much needed temperature shift! After the blizzard, 85 degree Utah felt AMAZING! Don't be fooled, the story doesn't end there. When we got to the beach, we discovered that there were no roads, but we saw other midsized sedans down by the water. Thinking if they could do it without getting stuck, then we could do it, so we took off across the beach. Unfortunately, we were not so lucky. We got out of the car, assessed the situation and decided to push the car back to the harder packed sand. Only the front drivers-side wheel appeared to be stuck. How hard could it be? As instructed, I got into the drivers seat, put the fusion in reverse, and gave it some gas. It moved about three feet before stopping completely. I hopped out of the car to see what had happened and found that the other front wheel was almost completely buried in the sand. The boys had been so focused on the drivers side that they hadn't noticed the enormous hole that had formed on the passenger side! Finally we gave up and called for a tow. The poor guy that came to help had to shovel out sand up to the frame! Haha! Let's just say we've learned our lesson!

That night Jimmy asked me if I was okay probably 20 times! I just assumed he thought I was upset about my car.

"At least I have a good story to tell!" was my response.

Now for the proposal! After shooting at the lake, we drove to Zion National Park to hike Angel's Landing. We had decided that Angel's Landing would be the best hike to capture on film, but Jimmy had other plans. When we got to the park Jimmy asked me if I wanted to go wash my hair in the bathroom (We didn't have time to take showers before leaving Lake Powell). I had taken a shower the day before and it wasn't that bad so said no, I would just pull my hair up for the hike and take a shower when we got back to camp. I love Angel's Landing so I was more than eager to get going but Jimmy said he wanted to shave and wash his hair. I figured it was just for the film we were shooting so I patiently waited outside of the bathroom for the boys to finish.

Once they were all cleaned up, we headed to the car to change into our hiking shoes and I discovered that my phone had died. I tossed the phone back into the car and announced that someone else better have one because mine had died. Jimmy, taking advantage of the situation, asked Phil to take a picture of us before our favorite hike. After snapping a quick pic, we boarded the bus that took us to the trail head.

I would not recommend hiking Angel's Landing during the hottest part of the day, but we had decided to do a sunset time-lapse at the top, so we started this hike around 2pm (I think?). Phil and I both wore camel backs with a couple of lenses, while Jimmy lugged up a backpack full of camera gear. Needless to say, we had to stop to rest more than a few times. I offered to trade Jimmy and carry the backpack for a while, but he hastily said no and traded Phil instead. I didn't understand why he wouldn't let me carry it! When we finally reached the top, we set up the time-lapse and proceeded to shoot for the travel-app film.

Jimmy started setting up the other camera and told me that he was going to use the mic to get natural audio. I shrugged and said okay. He then showed Phil how to use the camera and told me he just wanted a shot of us for the film. The rest is as follows:

[embed]https://vimeo.com/65343235[/embed]

Looking back, I have no idea how I had not figured it out! It's all so obvious now! Haha! I guess Jimmy is sneakier than I give him credit for! :)

To our future couples: I look forward to hearing about your engagement, and as I'm sure you have figured out, we love a good story!

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captured in frames - St. Louis Wedding Videography

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