There are so many things to talk about between the crazy weather on the day of Julia and Michael’s Boone, NC engagement session, their proposal story and this crazy duck who desperately wanted his own photoshoot, it’s hard to figure out where to start!

We’ll go in order of events and start with the proposal. This is a fairly long story (I’ll sum it up) and also really hilarious and probably one of the best proposals I’ve seen/heard about to date. One week prior to the proposal Julia and Michael had a housewarming party, where Julia sort of expected Michael to propose. Of course, when he didn’t, she was a bit upset, but no worries. The next week, on their 2 year anniversary they were at dinner at the Angus Barn where, as Julia puts it, she ate A LOT and was super full. Generally after dinner, Michael would go get the truck and pick her up, but for some reason that night he insisted that she walk through the parking lot with him. It was chilly out, so she was not the happiest camper about his insistence on her walking with him. As they get to the parking lot there was a man pushing a shopping cart asking them for money. Michael told him no, but the guy asked again. So, Michael gave in and handed him a dollar. Julia is standing at the truck shivering and about to burst just wondering why Michael is engaging with this guy, when she hears the man with the shopping cart say “thanks, you might want to give her this…” and handed Michael a box. The box contained Julia’s engagement ring and Michael proposed right there in the parking lot to a hysterical Julia. Turns out, the random guy with the shopping cart was Michaels best friend in a well thought out disguise and another friend, hiding behind the truck filming the entire thing. 

When I asked Michael how long it took him to come up with this plan, he sort of shrugged and said “While I was at lunch one day”. HA! 

While we were brainstorming for locations for their engagement session, Julia mentioned how much the two of them love Boone and so Boone it was! The day of the session it poured down rain and was sooo windy up until the minute we were supposed to start shooting. Then it cleared up and was beautiful! While we were waiting on the wind to die down a bit, we ventured to Bass Lake where we met a duck or some variation of a duck-like animal. He was very friendly and met us at the edge of the lake where we laughed at him for a minute and then continued on our way. As I’m getting Julia and Michael set up how I need them to be, I turn around and this duck is RUNNING at us. Keep in mind, we also have their dog, Harry Macheavelli, with us and this duck does. not. care. We could not keep him out of the photos, there he was walking around wagging his tail feathers like a dog. So, we included him in the shoot until he felt like he had gotten his fill of pictures and moved on. Hilarious. We ended the day with beautiful mountain top and rock ledge photos and it couldn’t have been any more perfect!