Proposal | John Seigenthaler Pedestrian Bridge, Nashville, TN

Y’all I LOVE SURPRISE PROPOSALS. And this one did not disappoint in the slightest. Amazing people, dropped (and rescued!) phones, lots of tears, lots of friends. It was a night to remember.

A few months ago, I got an email from John just inquiring about how much it would be for me to come down to the bridge and capture the moment that he proposes to Lexi. We emailed back and forth and I texted Lexi’s best friend, Alyssa, who told me that John would love for me to walk up to him and Lexi “randomly” and offer to take some photos of the two of them, pretending it wasn’t a big deal or anything.

Y’all. Sidenote. I’m not a huge fan of this, but I can lie really well. If you’ve ever played Mafia or Werewolf with me or any of those games, I can fake being a newbie and get out of tight corners. So I used every ounce of my knowledge about lying to pull this off, but I must also admit I was SO NERVOUS — my hands were shaking and everything. I’ve never walked up to a couple before and offered to take random photos for them, but there’s always a first time for everything — and I would TOTALLY do this again in a heartbeat. It was so dang worth it.

A few minutes before they approached the bridge, I got a text from John letting me know what clothes the both of them were wearing. I told him I was in my overalls (the classic photographer vibe lol) and I was at the top of the bridge just waiting for them to stop nearby. When they came to the top and stood a few feet away from me, looking over the view, I sucked up all the courage I had and said, “oh my goodness you guys look so cute!! Do you mind if I take a few photos of the both of you? I’ll 100% send you the photos!! I’m just a new photographer in the Nashville area and would love to get like 2 minutes of content”. Lexi fully agreed (later we found out that she was very suspicious) and I proceeded to ask them if it was their first date — fully knowing that they had been dating for 9 years. I was really hoping to throw her off the scent. ANYWAY, the plan was to take a few cute photos of the two of them, with the ring safely stored in John’s pocket, and then do a “back to back pose” while looking dramatically off into the distance, from there Lexi would turn around and see that John was on his knee.

It worked like a charm. But when Lexi saw John on his knee, she yells, “I F****** KNEW IT” and points at John, before freaking out and saying yes and John placing the beautiful ring on her finger. What a BEAUTIFUL MOMENT.

BUT THAT WASN’T THE END. Suddenly, a man walks up to us and it takes Lexi a moment to recognize who it is — a friend!! Cue sooooo many tears. And after, as John hugs her and tries to stop her from looking over her shoulder, she escapes and runs to SO MANY MORE FRIENDS. So many tears and heavy sobs were shared and everyone was so excited!!!

AND THEN TRAGEDY HITS (don’t worry, we have a happy ending!). I asked everyone to put their phones to the side so they wouldn’t show up in the group photo. When we went back to grab our phones, one of the sweet girls, Cherise, realized that her phone had fallen through one of the gaps in the bridge. It was the start of the crazy evening. She and another friend ran down to see if they could see it from the bottom of the bridge, but a few minutes after they left we realized we could see it from the top of the bridge, but we just couldn’t reach it (the phone lit up every time we tried to call it, but it was 2 feet out of reach). We tried using some umbrellas, talked to a security guy, and so much more with no luck. I left somewhere in this, but Cherise reached out and told me the happy ending. They ended up contacting the city who got some engineers to come on the bridge. Then, they got a boat and climbed up to get her phone. WHAT AN ADVENTURE. And the best part of all of this? All of the reaction videos from Lexi were on Cherise’s phone so it was good for the moment and the day that we got it back (plus phones are expensiveee).

What a day!! Oh goodness so much happened, but I’m so grateful to hang out with John and Lexi and get them engaged!! These photos are just so so sweet!!!