In this blog, I share my real engagement story, reasons why I love video and behind the scenes. Secrets to why a staged engagement reenactment is worth it for the pictures. Etc. 

💍 He had the ring in his pocket the whole time and I couldn’t believe it. 
He proposed at the park, Caleb was in on it. I can’t believe he kept the secret the whole time! Caleb came running over “I knew he was going to, Mommy! Are you surprised?!” (INSERT SHOCKED MOMENT. Yes.)

I still don’t know how they pulled it off! It was the sweetest thing ever, my jaw hit the floor.. and my heart still has butterflies. Life complete! #nearlyanielsen#nickandsarahtogetherforever

THE (real) MOMENT

But capturing “the moment” wasn’t exactly an option. Nick decided to pop the question while we were sitting at the park on a oversized rock watching Caleb play as the sun was setting. It was truly a picture-esk moment. I remember thinking for a split second, what a perfect place for a proposal. NOT REALIZING MOMENTS FROM NOW THATS EXACTLY WHAT WOULD HAPPEN!!!!

Nick didn’t drop down on one knee, he actually had my legs draped across his lap as we sat comfortably talking about the photo shoot and random little things. From there, he got VERY serious all of the sudden talking about how much he loves me and wants to spend the rest of his life with me and Caleb. Ah. This moment was absolutely magical, time stopped but I don’t recall completely how he asked. Nick agrees, he didn’t think about preserving our memories for a lifetime beyond what we could remember. To this day, we try to recall exactly what was said. I think I said ‘Oh my God. Yes!” or maybe just “OH MY GOD!” But, it was sweet, emotional and a complete surprise. I had just wrapped up a fun photo shoot with MayKing Looks Boutique at the Nature Preserve at Arbor Hills. Which, looking back I am sure he could have grabbed the photographer and let him in on the moment. But hey, he was a nervous guy that just surprised me at my photo shoot for work. I’ll cut him some slack on this one 😉

I was completely decked out in athleisure  with a horrible spray tan. Sweaty. Ready for dinner! I was so excited Nick and Caleb had surprised me I didn’t think twice what they were up to. So, needless to say, this girl was NOT prepared to have the question popped one bit. I had my hair totally on point, but my nails were a wreck. Fortunately for fitness modeling I could get away without a manicure and a dark uneven spray tan. Ha! But, had I thought perhaps he would ask me to be his wife.. this girl would have been manicured to the nines.

The photos from the modeling shoot with tennis skirts and athletic wear went fantastic. The engagement photos.. sweet and very “in the moment” We went from Nick asking me in a long drawn out sweet way that we both can’t seem to remember what was said, to Caleb coming over to rub it in how HE knew the secret, to asking Caleb to jump in some photos with us and then he quickly ran off with my phone camera to take photos of trees, rocks, and squirrels!

Needless to say, I couldn’t wait to recreate the “moment” two years later at our engagement photo shoot. (Another blog post will explain more on why we waited two years to get married.) I work in media and absolutely LOVE videos. I have always adored engagement photos and videos. Anything that evokes emotion in photos or video I am drawn to. So when we were planning on sending out our Save the Date Cards for our wedding announcement I jumped on the opportunity to recreate our engagement moment to share our engagement story. We were excited to revisit the special rock, which he and I both remembered it differently so we have yet to find the real rock we sat on which we now call Mysterious Engagement Rock. We dressed up, entertained each other throughout the entire process. It was so special. Here is the video I made:

Sarah and Nick are Getting Married!

Music jingle: Marry You, Bruno Mars

Music: Sign Me Up, Matt Hartke

I literally can’t watch it without tearing up right away. We had such a fun time with this, felt very special celebrating our engagement and celebrating our big wedding day announcement! This was a huge deal for us to finally have a date on the calendar. July 13, 2019. Huge y’all. Huge.

Cheers to engagements. Cheers to a reenactment proposal. Nick deserves an award for how he got down on one knee with my ring and we over dramatized the moment. Joggers on the trail at the Arbor Hills Nature Preserve stopped to watch. I screamed YES! YES I WILL MARRY YOU just to keep the effect. Our photographer was entertained. Hey, we couldn’t have an engagement photo shoot without Nick getting down on one knee and I reasoned with him “FIRST of all, you never got down on one knee when you popped the question. So here is your chance!”. He did. And it was adorable.

I have to say, the photos turned out absolutely fantastic. The moment captured on video added to the story we were building in our little video we are using to build the wedding hype. I cherish the looks on our faces in each and every photo taken during our engagement photo session AND adding my little video of behind the scenes was more fun than I could have imagined. We laughed the entire time.

There is something to be said for waiting to take engagement photos until you are in the wedding planning process. For us, it meant victory! We are finally ready to walk down the aisle. It took 2 years for us to finally be at the place where we were 100% ready to plan the biggest party of our lives, the dedication to plan an event together so massive it took every single night after work to have intentional conversations about each other’s expectations for our day and what our day really meant. For the engagement photos, I wore my hair down. 2 years of being engaged had paid off for my hair! It was so short the day real proposed I immediately stopped my haircut routine knowing that I wanted long beautiful blonde hair for my wedding photos.

Our engagement photos were taken in February. In Texas, it was 70 degrees (not typically the norm BUT we lucked out with a warm day) The scenery was very open, not as much greenery as we liked how our outfits appeared bright and vibrant in the photos. Just about as bright and vibrant as our moments together 😉

The moments caught on my phone where I am setting up phone camera 2 are hilarious and I will forever make fun of myself for this BUT I am telling you it’s worth it. Roll on the photo shoots. You can obsess over the shots immediately after the shoot AND hey, give back to your photographer. I made her an action packed video she can use for marketing of her in the ZONE with us. She was moving around to get the perfect shot (which she did) helping me with my flowers, my hair, etc.

Y’all I am telling you. Do this once and you will be hooked!

Tag me in your BTS moments. I would love to see them! #socialwithsarahBTS