You guys – this was easily the most unexpected photography experience we’ve ever had!! Thankfully John and Paige are two of the SWEETEST humans in the world and I cannot believe how well they handled everything that happened (though I suppose it helped Paige a bit that she had no idea John was planning to propose that evening)! 🙂
Anyway – here is the story!! When John first inquired he wanted to propose to Paige in the middle of the ice at the Millennium Park ice rink! It was a perfect night in Chicago for it – with temps of almost 50 degrees! We ironed out all the details via maps and emails, photos and numerous text messages and we were set to go!! The only thing was that John didn’t mention until the morning of the proposal that he actually wasn’t such a good ice skater. (I believe his exact words were “I’m TERRIBLE at ice skating.”) haha. At the time I thought it was funny and assumed he was just being humble and maybe overly dramatic about his level of skating abilities. Well, as we quickly learned upon watching he and Paige arrive at the rink and do a few laps – he was actually not kidding. haha. (Love you, John!!)
The poor guy was struggling a bit to say the least, and all I could think was that already not being good on skates combined with the total EXCITEMENT and NERVES that a person has running through their body moments before they’re about to propose to the love of their life can’t be a good combination. And it turns out my gut feeling was right. Paige went to make a loop around the rink on her own and this was John’s big moment to carefully make his way to center ice where she’d meet him and he’d drop down to one knee.
Except he didn’t make it to middle ice. Instead, he lost his balance and ended up hitting his face on the ice and came up with blood pouring down the side of his face. (Let’s just say thank goodness James was there to keep me calm because I was freaking out for John! I could have cared less about the proposal at this point and just wanted to make sure he was okay!!) A few text messages later, as well as James sneaking into the bathroom to pretend to use the restroom (but really just to check on John) – he was cleaned up and ready to figure out a second location option because clearly the ice rink wasn’t happening!
James and I hurried around the park to try to find somewhere with enough light for John to pop the question and a few text messages later we had a new plan and John was ready to go! We had found the perfect little pocket of light for it to all go down! (I still can’t believe he just bounced back after all that and was ready to keep on with our plans!!) Before we knew it – he was on his way and got down on one knee and asked Paige to be his wife (although it was about 30 feet off the mark of where we texted him to do it… haha!) – but we made it work and most importantly Paige said YES!!!
Here’s a look at the whole night, complete with a re-enactment of the big moment in the actual spot we found with the beautiful light for the back-up plan (which we’ve never had a couple do before)! But given the circumstances of the night and that we were working off of text messages alone to figure out a new spot and try to explain to John where we were talking about – I’d say it was a complete success!! And oh my gosh do these two have a story to tell their kids someday!!! (Including the part where when it was all said and done, they did finally make their way to the ER where John actually needed stitches. Ah!)
Paige & John – We can’t thank you enough for being so wonderful and given how well you reacted to such an unexpected situation and whirlwind of a night – we’d say you two are well equipped to tackle whatever life throws your way!! Congratulations a million times over!! XOXO ~ Christy & James 🙂
We had to get at least one showing John’s battle wound and the ring – didn’t we?! I’d say it’s pretty apparent how wildly in love he is with Paige since he was willing to propose on ice skates for her, even though that is most definitely not his most comfortable place to be!! Congrats again you two!!!
