Shooting a proposal in Paris - if that isn't a bucket-list item, I don't know what is. And double bonus, it was for my darling friend Jenna (you can see the look of shock on her face a few photos down when she saw me! She said she had a hunch I might be there... but I'll choose to believe she was surprised ;) ). Jenna's now-fiance Landon messaged me via Instagram a few months prior to their engagement. We developed this not-so-little plan, and to say it was a magical day would be the understatement of the year. I adore both of them and I can't wait for their wedding! One of the best days. & my mom and sister got to come along for the day! Couldn't imagine not having them there. :) I wrote the details of the day, including airplane cancellations and how dreamy this day was..check it out below all the photos! Enjoy, xoxo.

If you're curious about the details of the day - here's a little bit of how the day went down! We were already traveling in London, so it was a quick flight jump over the English channel to arrive in France. So we set our alarms just shy of 4:30AM and took a taxi for an hour outside the city to catch our plane. I had started to catch a cold before I left for Europe, but felt mostly great the whole trip (thankfully!), although when I hit the fluorescent lighting of the airport the morning of our flight I got my first ice-pick migraine in my right eye (PSA: migraines are no-joke. Mine was definitely sick-related + probably lack of sleep - but man, I feel for you if you ever get those!). I had no clue what it was, so I walked around covering one eye (maybe an eye patch would have been helpful? Not above being a pirate. Actually, in an international airport... maybe not haha). Anyways, nothing was going to stop this day from happening - so we hopped on with no problems and arrived safely in France. We took the Metro into Paris - and I managed to fall asleep (not even sure how that that happened - probably an answer to prayer tbh), and I woke up feeling 75% better! Stop after stop as we drew closer to the city center, things started getting more + more charming. And I have to say, stepping up out of the Metro directly next to the Eiffel Tower is a feeling like none other! Also a feeling like none-other - THE COLD. Wow, we ended up stopping and grabbing more scarves to wrap around our faces for the day. We hit up the most darling cafe and of course had way too many croissants (how could you not?!). We then scouted out the location - ps, not hard to find the Eiffel Tower. One of the easiest scouting jobs I've done, for sure. :) We found the best little walkway - and the grass was being renovated so nobody was allowed on it - so we had a clearing behind the spot (score!). After finding our spot, we meandered around Paris and enjoyed the city. At the designated time we returned back to the proposal site, had Landon set on "find my friends" - and creepily waited. Everyone had a job - mine was to shoot, my mom was to keep the area clear, kindly asking strangers to move (s/o to all the moms out there getting the worst of jobs!). Leslie was in charge of the iPhone video (now I'm thinking people should hire us as a proposal team? Might be a new business venture for us..). Oh, and I had the camera. Jenna is one of my great friends, so both Leslie and I had our faces covered scarves so she wouldn't recognize us (because twins). I noticed them immediately at a distance, and Landon walked to the spot I had texted him, read an incredible letter + then popped the question which received the obvious answer of "yes!!" She turned and saw me and we had the biggest reunion + celebration hug! Ah - what a great moment. Being a photographer is the best - because you get to be with people in the small and big moments that they'll remember forever. We then snapped some more photos in the surrounding area - talking and laughing all about Landon's crazy plan to get Jenna to come to Paris with him (which was a complete surprise, btw. He basically just took her to LAX with a blindfold on). After all the celebration and pictures, we took off and saw some more sites & found the greatest little dinner place called Paparazzi. This tiny hole-in-the-wall restaurant with INCREDIBLE food. Check it out if you're ever in the area. :) It was starting to get really late, but we had to see the Eiffel Tower sparkle - so we literally RAN to the Metro and watched it go off. :) I feel like the only word to describe most of the day was "magical" haha. Cheesy but just so true. We arrived back to our hotel around midnight, exhausted and happy to be in a warm room. We climbed into bed and set our alarms for 4AM for our early morning flight - but I received an email a few minutes later that our flight was cancelled - wait, what? Yup. Airlines strikes, apparently. But I then received another email at 3AM that our flight was back on, so we stayed on our current schedule & hopped on over to the airport at 4 something. We arrived and it was straight up crazy - apparently everything was actually still cancelled... it was a scene. People yelling, security being brought out, airline employees saying they wouldn't rebook the flights.... so we just peace'd out and took 3 different trains (including one going underneath the English Channel.. yup, that was trippy) to Manchester. A whirlwind of 24 hours - but a dreamy, magical and meaningful day to say the least!

J+L. PARIS PROPOSAL