Proposal | River Mountain Park, Knoxville, Tennessee

Okay – STORYTIME. Sorry not sorry, but hope you’re in for the long haul, because this is NOT the long story short.

I met Hailey when we were 9 years old — I had just moved in to a new neighborhood, and who would live across the street but Hail? Through the years we walked to school together numerous times, went over to her backyard to play, make snowmen and ice fortresses, played lots and lots of basketball, drank lots of hot chocolate, had many sonic ice cream runs, and so much more.

In college, it continued, even though we went separate ways. We would call each other weekly, as one person was running between classes, and would catch up and vent about our days and lives. We never stopped checking in, we visited each other at college, and just simply continued to do life with each other, even if we weren’t technically neighbors anymore.

Anddddd lastly – Hail is a HUGE part of my photography business. Every time I wanted to try something new on my camera, I would call her up and she and her sister would model for me. We did soooo many weird and dumb things (Pinterest was used overwhelmingly), but truly a lot of my business and this job is due to Hail and Lexi and for that I’m grateful! She was one of my first senior portraits in high school (the real start to my photography career) so capturing her proposal was unbelievably sentimental.

So that leads us to the entire reason for this blog – the proposal! Harrison texted me out of the blue in August “ANGEL. It’s Harrison what’s up” and my immediate response was “STOP. STOPPPPPP. IS THIS WHAT I THINK IT IS”. And well, of course it was.

We talked through some ideas, he got the ring a couple of months later, and we finalized our plan — he was going to propose along the riverwalk, pretending that there was a plaque somewhere along the river for his UT army ROTC class.

So on New Year’s Eve, I drove up to Knoxville from Nashville — only 4 minutes behind Hailey for the entire drive. I went straight down to the riverwalk (while Hailey went to lunch with a friend to distract her from the day!) and Harrison and I scoped out the spot, took some sample shots, and then headed back to the afterparty location!

After a few hours of hanging with Harrison’s fam and settling in, I headed back to the riverwalk and hid behind a brick wall. A few LONG minutes later, I hear Harrison and Hailey walk by, deep in conversation, and Hailey 100% set on finding this nonexistent ROTC plaque before Harrison. He pulled her close, told her there wasn’t a plaque (to which Hailey got really confused), got down on one knee, and she said yes!!

And the rest of the day was a blur of a party! We took some photos and then headed back to the AirBNB, where Hailey and Harrison’s families were waiting and everyone was beyond thrilled! We ate some food, took some photos, and then I snuck out, stating that I had to drive back to Nashville that night. Instead, I headed downstairs, where 50+ of Hailey and Harrison’s were hanging out, ready to surprise Hailey!

Harrison and Hailey came down about 10 minutes later and the look of pure shock on Hailey’s face is still one of my favorite moments. The rest of the night was an absolute blast, but it was simply so fun to celebrate these two and their future together!!

Harrison and Hailey, I love you guys!! I cannot FREAKING WAIT to get y’all married!!