If ever there was a fairytale that began with, “Once upon a time, in a land far, far away…” this Forest Park Proposal would be a special chapter in that book. If you haven’t heard me shout it to the world, let me shout it here:
MY SISTER IS GETTING MARRIED!!!
Oh, what a sweet, sweet story. A story where all who know these two can pause with a loud, “Yes, and amen!” A surprise for not only Molly and Randall, but also for all of us. A story of hope. A story of beauty from ashes. A story of love…a story of joy.
This past spring, my family hadn’t met Randall yet. But Randall and I began communicating over Facebook messenger to plan out this incredible proposal for when he and my sister would come to St. Louis to meet all of us for Easter. Molly was in Houston for her residency. Randall was in Phoenix. He was so, so kind to want to include us in his proposal. The question was, how do we get my sister dressed up and out to a beautiful location for the big surprise?
Well, it was Easter after all. And I ALWAYS take a family picture for Easter. So the plan was we were going to include Molly and Randall in our family pictures, and you can enjoy the progression of how that went from family picture to proposal below. Randall had “their song” for us to sing–complete with some hilarious whistling–and I have to say, we didn’t do so bad. 🙂 My daughter-in-law made a beautiful rose bouquet to fit with the song, and Randall had us show a number of pictures of their time together throughout this past year. It came together even better than any of us imagined, and Molly didn’t hesitate to say, “Yes!” to her handsome groom-to-be.
I do have pause a minute to give a HUGE thank you to one of my assistant photographers and very dear friend, Lisa Priest, who captured the entire proposal for me so I could be with my family. She did amazing, as always, and these images will be treasured for years and years to come.
After the proposal and congratulations, Lisa and my family headed back while I stayed with my sister and Randall to take their engagement pictures. What an incredible night on every level, and I’ll let the pictures speak for themselves. They are so beautiful together, and we are all completely over the moon.
One funny note, before you scroll down, I’ll let you figure out which picture we happened to grab when Anna laughed and shouted out to Randall as he was hugging my sister soon after the proposal, “Hey, get your hands off my Aunt Molly!!” Let’s just say, we are all having fun with this relationship and poor Randall has had a full induction into our family.
The wedding, you ask? Coming up soon! August 12th, in fact. And I for one can’t wait!
Until then, scroll on down to see some favorites on one INCREDIBELE night in Forest Park!