Couples’ Session Turned Proposal | Ellington Agricultural Center, Nashville, TN

Oh my goodness. LaShawn and Deona are EVERYTHING and this proposal took my breath away. These two truly do love each other and it was SO OBVIOUS to see, and I’m just so so thankful that I got to capture these memories for them for the rest of their lives. Congrats to the new fiancés!! Keep reading if you want to hear the entire proposal story (you know you want to ).

Deona reached out to me a while ago, and set up a fun little couples’ session for her and LaShawn. These two met at college at the University of Kentucky a while back, and now have spent most of quarantine in Nashville, walking on trails and doing other things (because their favorite date activity – movies – has been affected by COVID obviously). LaShawn works in sales for Dell and Deona is in school getting her degree in social work. They had a mini Thanksgiving together with some rad food, and then came out and hung out with me that weekend! AND THE BEST PART OF ALL — Deona had noooo idea that the proposal was coming.

LaShawn called me about a week before the session, and since I was at lunch, he left a voicemail. It read, “Hey Angel, this is LaShawn. I was calling in regards to the pictures on Saturday and something else that I was thinking about. Just whenever you get a chance, give me a call or send me a text at your earliest convenience. Don’t tell Deona I’m calling obviously, but just let me know when you have time, and I look forward to seeing you soon.”

Y’ALL. This was JUSTTTTT vague enough for me not to be certain that he was proposing, but also so clear that I knew with 99% certainty that he was going to propose. About five minutes later I gave him a call back, and he confirmed my thoughts — he was going to propose to the love of his life at the session cue all my happy dances!! We schemed out when he wanted to get on one knee (later on in the session because he wanted to get some sweet photos with her first), how to get the ring to the session, and my magical trigger words (aka, the fun pose) to make it all happen.

And Saturday came. LaShawn totally kept his cool (and I did my best to be chill!) and everything went smoothly. It was ALMOST messed up because I asked LaShawn to empty his pockets for the photos LOL and his ring was 100% in his pocket. However, he took the ring out real quick and just stuck it in his pocket and Deona was none the wiser oops on my part though, but I knew they would hate having a phone and wallet in every photo

And at the end of the session, we did the magical pose and I asked Deona to turn around. AND THIS IS WHEN IT GETS GOOOOOOD. Deona was absolutely confused, telling LaShawn to get up from the ground. She thought he was just tying his shoe or something, not proposing (especially since the ring was in a little plastic bag LOL). It took a couple of minutes of convincing from LaShawn for her to finally say yes — we also had to tell her that LaShawn had called me twice that week and that her sweet momma already knew. Once she realized that it wasn’t a joke and that she was actually being proposed to, she freaked out and ran into LaShawn’s arms — it was crazy sweet and precious.

Y’all. They’re engaged!!! I’m so excited for these two sweethearts and for their journey ahead. They’re going to have a long wonderful marriage ahead of them!!! Congratulations LaShawn and Deona!