Morning cakies! Hope you all had the best Thanksgivings yet. We’re still in celebration mode (K, when are we not?!) which makes it the perfect time for a sweet proposal story, no? The lovely Megan Welker (recall her photos here + here) was in for quite the surprise when she thought she was heading to Malibu for work. Her guy Adam and friend/photog Ala of Love Ala, had arranged a styled shoot for Megan to model in—nothing too out of the ordinary riiiight? Wrong! Now, for both of their stories:
From Megan: Adam is the best at surprises. All throughout our relationship he’s planned surprise date days, date nights, the list goes on and on. I knew our engagement would be something planned and executed perfectly because he’s just so dang good at that stuff. He’s been really throwing me off lately, planning a date night at a nice restaurant, surprising me with stay-cations, and each time I would think “Is THIS it?”.
Now fast forward to November 20th, the day of my styled shoot with Ala. I got ready and drove to Malibu (where I was just the day before and complained to Adam that I had to drive all the way up there and back to Long Beach two days in a row… He probably wanted to kill me at that moment). He called me while I was driving, saying he was at work, sending me photos of things they had just got into the antique store so at that point I was like, “Okay this is really just a shoot, don’t even think about a proposal, Megan”.
When I got to the park I started pretending I was making a wreath, hanging out, and enjoying the time with these ladies. They were photographing the bouquet while I was holding it when all of a sudden I heard someone walking up behind me. I turned to look and saw Adam, looking so handsome (and very nervous). I put the bouquet down and he got on one knee and asked me to spend the rest of my life with him. It was the best and most surreal moment of my life. I’m so excited to marry this man!
Gah, look at them all dressed up for it, too (smart guy he is!). Adam then surprised her by having her best friend show up, who made the trip down from Northern CA with her husband. They all went to Gjelina’s to celebrate.
Okay, now for Adam’s side of the story…
Megan is the one woman in the world that no one can surprise so I knew this was going to be difficult. With Megan being a wedding photographer, her schedule can be tough so I enlisted the help of our friend Ala. I knew from several conversations Megan wanted it to be well documented and didn’t want to be holding her purse during the whole thing so I had to go through her friend to finally nail down a day that would work for both Megan and I. Originally it was supposed to be a regular photo shoot and I was going to just pop the question, but Ala enlisted the help of her friend Veronica of Willow and Jade to style the whole thing. It was going well until about 2 weeks out—she began talking to her friends and became more suspicious about the shoot, thinking this was it. This entire time I was texting her friends back and forth and they told me “She knows”.
So they pressured me to tell her I couldn’t do the shoot and she would have to do it on her own. I felt bad but knew this was the only way to offer up any surprise. She totally bought into it using the excuse I couldn’t get off work. During those two weeks I coordinated with her friends, dinner, and an overnight stay at the Palihouse Santa Monica, one of our favorite hotels.
Then the day of, I continued to call her and send photos from work playing deeper into my little white lie. I met our friends at the location a few hours early to set up the shoot with tons of vintage rugs and flowers. I then ran up a large hill to hide behind a tree for almost an hour. Ala was supposed to text me in the first 10mins to come down but next thing I know 45 minutes passed and not a word. It may be that I was making the biggest decision of my life but my heart was racing and my hands sweating. I don’t know why, it’s not like she would say no. Then finally I got the text and as quietly as possible tip-toed down the hill to my soon to be wife.
As I got closer she began to turn to find me nervously shaking. I sloppily spit out my words of “I love you and want to spend the rest of my life with you”. She then set her massive bouquet down and after I asked the question she said, “Umm.. Yeah!”. Then as she kissed me she said “I knew it”. This was one of the most stressful and exciting surprises I have ever planned and couldn’t be happier to be with this woman!
*Hearts melting*. Congratulations to Megan + Adam!
Photographer: Ala Cortez of Love Ala / Styling: Adam Brayinder & Veronica Valencia / Florals: Veronica Valencia of Willow and Jade / Ring Box: The Mrs Box / Rugs: Vintage / Megan’s Dress (Similar): ASOS & Nasty Gal / Adam’s Blazer: Club Monaco / Button Up: Scotch and Soda / Chinos: Club Monaco / Shoes: B Store
