Our Charleston Proposal Story

Ahhh, finally! I’ve been sitting on these pictures for what, 8 months now? It’s time I share them with you! So, November 9th started off totally normal. We went for a run over the Ravanel Bridge, checked out of the hotel, checked into another, and got ready for the photos. My friends kept hyping me up, telling me that he was definitely going to propose. I knew they were full of it because I had patted down every inch of his suitcase for a ring box, and no luck. 😂

I tried to cancel the photos a couple of times because we were only going to be in Charleston for a couple of days, Mike had never been there, and there was a lot of rain in the forecast. I didn’t want to spend our only sunny day taking photos and missing out on exploring the town. But I guess I suggested canceling it enough times because Mike found us another hotel to check into and extended the trip, lol. Our first hotel was already booked solid for the next night!

I had reached out to Clair about 4 months before and asked her to take pics. From working with her at CHKD, I can tell ya that she is a mega smart nurse. Now she runs a crazy successful photography business and takes the most amazing newborn photos you have ever seen. I was so excited and hopeful she would be available to take our pics!

She immediately agreed and said she was going to bring her friend Natasha along. Omg, I’m so glad she did because I fell in love with Natasha! So for 4 months, I stalked every downtown house on google maps to get the perfect backdrop that went with my blue dress.

So we got ready, Mike got his “pre-photoshoot whiskey” at the Mills House, and we met Clair and Natasha around 4pm! The session started off great, we took pics on “labor lane”, that cobblestone road, and Natasha found the cutest little Tuscan-esque alleyway with the cypress trees. Clair knew we wanted to get pics with the blue and white house, so she led us there next.

Natasha took some headshots of me “for the blog” and gave Mike enough time to get the ring out of his pocket. The loose ring! The reason why I didn’t feel a box is because it wasn’t in a dang box, lol.

It all happened so fast and I think I forgot how to breathe for a minute, lol!

Clair & Natasha went on to take more pics and I had a whole list of saved houses from google maps, but that plan went flying out the window. I changed into my red dress for Christmas card pics; read the post here to get all the dets on the photo for our card!

Then we went to dinner with the girls at 82 Queen, had a fun champagne toast, walked around King Street, bought a candle at Candle Fish (#68, so amazing!), and I just felt like I was walking in a dream!

We were both shaking and beyond excited and it was just the best day of our lives. Thank you so much Mike for planning the sweetest surprise, and Clair Shorter Photography & Natasha Coyle Photography for capturing some of my life’s favorite memories.