Cameron and I met 6 years ago. It was the beginning of our last semester of Highschool. We went to different schools in the area, but had become friends on Facebook somehow. One day I mustered up the courage to send him a message introducing myself. If you know me, its not like me to do this at all. But from there we chatted and exchanged phone numbers! The flirtatious texting began and a few days later we had our first official date. It was Valentines day and Cameron told me he had this huge plan for us that day. So naturally I was super excited and met him at his place at the time said to (around 12 on a school day, and yes this means we cut class haha). When I showed up, he had two things to give me. One being a dozen roses, and two being a blindfold. Now I know what your thinking, but the story gets better. I was told to keep this blindfold on and to get into the car so I didn’t know where we were going. He drove us up to a hiking spot where we did a small hike and had a picnic laid out for use! It was super cute and totally unexpected.
All of my favorites were there, PB&J’s with strawberry jelly, chips, veggies, and topped off with Dr. Pepper. From there we drove back down the hill and grabbed some ice-cream while we killed time for the next event. Blindfold back on, and we land at the movie theater. A romantic comedy if I remember correctly. After the movie, the blindfold went back on as he circled the parking lot to confuse me, as we ended up at my favorite Chinese restaurant just next door! After we enjoyed a nice dinner, the check came with the fortune cookies, and the fortune I received was a hand written note asking me to be his girlfriend. It was possibly the cutest thing anyone had ever done for me. And from there (after saying yes of course!) we drove the hill to watch the stars. (Swoon!) After about 5 month of dating we both moved to Santa Cruz to attend college. It has been a crazy eventful 6 years but its been the best 6 years of my life! Which leads me into the proposal story!
So this all started when I told Cameron I needed some new headshots for my website rebrand. (I am a wedding photographer and was doing a rebrand of my entire business) I started looking for a local photographer with a more unique style and I landed on Savannah Hayes Photography! After talking with her and planning out a date for the shoot, I just decided that Cameron and I should just make this a 6 year anniversary shoot! We had never had photos taken of us professionally (which is shocking considering I do this for a living) so this would be a good opportunity to have head shots done AND get some cute photos of us! Little did I know he had another plan in mind. We were finishing up our first location as I headed to the bathrooms to change outfits.
While that was happening, Cameron told Savannah about the proposal and handed her the ring to look after it until it was needed. When we arrived at Panther Beach my heart just dropped. It was so breathtaking. After a few photos here and there, we made our way over to this awesome looking cliff. Savannah asked if I would join her for a few head shots up there, meanwhile Cameron was busy trying not to have a panic attack while he retrieved the ring. When it was time for Cameron to rejoin me, Savannah backed up to give us some space as she told us she was going to be taking some shots from further away.
While we were standing there gazing into the most beautiful sunset I realized something magical was about to happen. Cameron started chatting about how we’ve been together for 6 years, and how this has been the best 6 years of his life and as I cracked a smile at him, he pulled out the most beautiful ring as he got down on one knee and said “I don’t want to take one more step on this journey without you. Danyelle, will you marry me?” As I held back the tears I of course said YES! I am so blessed to have the amazing life that I do, watching people get married almost every weekend and to finally be able to experience it myself. We are over the moon excited for this new journey in our lives and extremely thrilled with the fact that we have these amazing images to stare at!
May 5, 2017
This is truly useful, thanks.