David & Hope // Proposal

The evening that our friends David + Hope got engaged was full of good food, great laughs, lots of sly texting, and a few panicked looks. David and I had been texting and planning out the proposal for weeks ahead of time and had thrown around a plethora of ideas of how it all should go down. We finally settled on Portland City Grill as the location and decided that we would disguise it as a double date night, which worked really well since the four of us had been wanting to double date there for quite a while!

I spent a lot of time on Google, looking at the various photos of the restaurant and planning out exactly how we could pull this off. We planned out that he would propose before dinner, and that I would just be the crazy photographer friend who wanted to get a photo of them which would then lead into him down on one knee. We both had these grand images in our heads of the proposal taking place right next to one of the ginormous windows that overlooks Portland.

Weeeellll…things didn’t go quite as planned. I texted David when we were about half an hour away and asked how things were, to which he responded that the lighting was dark and they were really busy so he wasn’t sure how it would all work. It can’t be thaaat bad, I thought, right? Wrong.

When Nathan and I walked in, my heart dropped a little. The only lighting was super dim lights scattered along the walls, and flickering candles on the tables. The restaurant was packed, and there was no room anywhere along the windows for a photo op. I whipped out my phone (trying my hardest to be stealthy so Hope wouldn’t suspect anything) and texted David asking what on earth he wanted to do. A few messages back and forth, and we finally decided that he would propose after the meal, down in the lobby on the main floor.

Fast forward through the best goat cheese stuffed chicken I have ever eaten (the photo does *not* do it justice), we finally headed toward the elevator that would take us the 30 floors down to the lobby. I did a quick survey of the area as soon as we got down there and zeroed in on the area right inside the main door. It wasn’t perfect (read: it wasn’t right in front of a ginormous window that overlooked Portland) but it was quiet and beautiful and I knew it would be special no matter where we ended up.

I turned into the crazy photographer friend and instructed them to remove their coats and go pose for a picture. I did a few quick adjustments, took an actual photo of them, and then said “oh that’s perfect!” which was the code phrase that meant “David, it’s all you, boy”.

Nothing. Nada. Radio silence. Ummm okay…I guess I’ll just roll with it. I kept snapping photos, trying not to arose Hope’s suspicion but having no idea if David was thinking maybe we should wait or…?? “You should twirl her!” I said, and then mouthed “are you gonna do it??” to David when Hope’s back was turned.

And then…

Ahh! He was down on one knee and Hope was saying “wait are you serious?” followed by a very teary + smiley “yes” as David slide the ring on her finger.

And, as they say, the rest was history!

David + Hope, thank you for letting us be a part of your lives, and for being such great friends. Thanks for allowing me to capture this moment and for rolling with the punches! We can’t wait for your wedding, and to see where this life takes you. And Hope, thank you for taking a few photos of Nathan and me! (David, no thanks goes to photo bombers, so you’re out of luck on this one.)