Personal

Our engagement story is a bit long, so I hope you’re ready!

Every year, I try to take my mom on a trip of some sort, whether it’s a national park or a new city. The last time my mom and I went to Europe was in 2018. I was newly “funemployed” and probably should have been saving money at the time, but decided that traveling is something you never really regret. Fast forward 4 years later, and I was going back as a wedding photographer and in the middle of a jam-packed wedding season! The plan was to spend 4 days in Paris, spend the weekend in Nice with our friends Jacquie + Adam, jet off to Rome for another few days, and then to end the trip in Lisbon.

My side of the story

At this point in the train ride, we were officially passing the coast and all I could think about was about breathtakingly beautiful the views were. I have seen blue water plenty of times in my life, but I’ve never seen this hue before. And I swear right in that moment, I thought of Mark. Mark grew up in San Francisco, and he would always tell me how much he loves the ocean. I remembered thinking to myself that I wanted to come back to Nice some day with him someday so he could see it too.

Mark’s side of the story

Little did I know, that at that moment, Mark was waking up in the airbnb I would eventually be staying at with our friends, Jacquie + Adam. Mark had flown in the night prior and they all had dinner together. Also at this point, he had turned his location off on Google maps and ignored my texts, knowing full well that he wouldn’t text me back in the middle of the night.

I was fairly tired at this point and I didn’t think much of it. Finally we arrived at Nice and it was so beautiful!! Jacquie decided to take us around for lunch and we took some photos.

When we got back to the airbnb, Jacquie told us to get ready. We’re meeting her cousin “Maggie” up for dinner. She also very slyly mentioned that we should try and look cute so we could take photos. Kudos to Jacquie! After rushing to get ready, we decided to head out! The drive to the castle was sooo beautiful and scenic. Every turn absolutely took my breath away. It was at this point that I decided to text Mark and tell him that I missed him.

The Proposal

Finally we get dropped off at the castle. There was some initial confusion on the exact “place” we were supposed to be in. Jacquie at this point seemed flustered and I was still completely in the dark about what was going on. We walked around the castle and inside and out before Jacquie decided that we walk back out. At this point, I did find it a little strange that we couldn’t just take our photos wherever. But then as we walked out, Jacquie asked to take my camera and walked behind a bit. At the end of the tunnel, guess who pops out? Mark!

My first initial thoughts were, “I can’t believe it’s real.” Honestly, I had a little inkling, but I never thought it would actually happen and at that exact moment. When he got down on one knee, I was just too shocked to say yes, and instead blubbered out “what are you doing here?!” It was the best day of our lives and we are so thankful for our friends and family for keeping this secret! Here are few of our photos from the engagement!

I hope you enjoyed our engagement story! For more travel, check out this page here!