{I do} 2013 ~ wedding giveaway

2012 was another fabulous year for Bella Blue Photography. I’m amazed at the opportunities God puts in my lap. I have met some of the sweetest people through my work. As always, I am giving back! For the 3rd year in a row I am giving away to one lucky couple my photography services at their wedding..for free!!! I was overwhelmed by all the stories I received about these couple’s engagements. I had over 30 entries, and narrowed it down to 13. After a fun contest on FB, we have it down to 4 couples! So until Jan 25th at noon, anyone can vote!!! I’ve included below a snippet from everyone’s story.

ONE VOTE PER PERSON. You are NOT allowed to vote for anyone else.

Jake & Abby:

“We started walking around the park, with an overcast sky, and cold weather ( our favorite weather). We got around to the pretty part of the park, and he asked me to walk up a hill with him to where we could see the skyline. I told him no because I was hungry and was ready to go eat 🙂 . He walked up some and had me follow. He then began to get tears in his eyes, got down on one knee, and proposed. Of course, after saying ‘WHAT?!” several times, I said yes. He had the ring picked out in July, but made sure to ask my dad for my hand in marriage before proposing. Afterwards, he had me choose wherever I wanted to eat..I was so excited and had butterflies in my stomach that nothing sounded good to me- until we saw Ihop. Piedmont Park ( and IHop) was always our special place, but now it is even more special to us. 🙂 He is the best thing to happen to me. It is so funny how you can know someone for 7 years, and never see them in a romantic way, but 7years later, they are the love of your life and the only one you want to spend the rest of your life with. ”

Kala & Clay:

“So we arrive to the zoo and walk around looking at all of the different animals for about 45 minutes. We then come up on a new area that the zoo had completed called the “butterfly hallow garden.” Which is a beautiful covered flower garden with amazing butterflies flying all throughout the garden and has a long pathway you follow to complete the tour. As we come to the first part of the garden, I come up to a beautiful sign in storybook writing that says ” once upon a time there was a prince and a princess who grew up living very different lives” I walk on to the next sign which stated “The prince was from the city , while the princess was from the country”. As I walked through the garden , there were signs standing in order , which told a story of how the two of us met And fell in love ” our love story”. There were a total of approx 30 signs .As I get to the second to the last posting the sign read ” then one day at the jacksonville zoo, the prince finally got the courage to ask “.He then got down on one knee with tears and his eyes and asked me to be his wife( I said yes of course) So as I complete the end of the amazing proposal I walk into the next exhibit and he has a lepord print outfit waiting for me. He tells me to get dressed . After getting dressed I walk out to find my entire family, his family, and all of our friends there all in animal print clothing ( he had rented the entire zoo for the rest of the afternoon) We had our engagement party, on the exact same day.( good thing I said yes) ”

John & Helena:

“I called Helena and told her that I had just been invited by her old professor to speak at University of North Florida. I said that he wanted to take her and I to lunch when I came home for Christmas to discuss the possibilities of both of us speaking there about our jobs. I asked her to dress nice which she was upset about because it was jeans week and she loves showing off her jeans. However, I knew she did not want to be wearing jeans in her proposal pictures. Once she left for work, I headed off to the University to meet my old professor. Since the school was closed for the holidays, he needed to be there to unlock the classroom for me. I went to work.

Ring? Check…..Dry Erase Markers? Check…….Extra Large Coffee to help settle the nerves? Check….And so it began. I performed nearly two hours of dry erase artwork on our old white board and prepared the room. I drove up to her work to pick her up for “lunch” and told her we would be meeting the professor at the University. She never questioned me and was more concerned about what in the world we were possibly going to talk about at lunch. On the way inside, she was sure to say “Wow…I don’t miss having to come here anymore” (a feeling that I hope I could soon change). We entered in and there he was….the professor….the unexpected barrier that was supposed to be upstairs! He had snuck down to see the board and did not think I would return so soon. He acted like he had not seen me earlier in the day and played off the surprise very well. He said he needed to go upstairs and would be back down soon if we would wait for him.

Once he walked away, Helena said, “let’s visit our classroom for old time’s sake.” I grinned and we walked in with the lights dimmed. At her old seat was a jewelry box with a white bow on it. She took a few steps in before noticing the whiteboard and immediately went into shock. She said Yes! It was perfect. The only thing that I thought I had to impress her, in the end, became what helped me propose to her. ”

Charles & Linnea:

“Charlie and I have been talking about getting married for a few months now. He is living in Green Cove Springs and I am a student at Florida State University in Tallahassee. I am not a girl who loves being the center of attention in front of a huge crowd. He had been looking up proposal videos for a while and was nervous to propose to me. That weekend of October 14th, was one filled with many hints in which I did not catch, but I did express that I was frustrated that he hadn’t asked yet. October 14th was 15 months since our first date after we met at the drag races. Right before church that morning, he wanted to give me my anniversary gifts. One gift was a stuffed animal with a pocket on it. Inside was a message attached to a heart-shaped metal washer about the size of a ring in order to give the illusion that it was an engagement ring. However I didn’t even pick up on the clue. Then he said, “I have something metal for you that you have been wanting for for a long time.” He asked me to close my eyes and gave me back my can opener that he got from me months ago so that he could fix it. Even then, I still did not get the hint! Then he told me to stand up because he wanted to give me a big hug. When we hugged, I could feel him shaking and his heart pounding, and I was concerned because I thought something was wrong. Then he got down on one knee, and asked me to marry him! I shook my head up and down, and managed to say in a small voice, yes! After we hugged, he went and picked up a candy bag on the chair a few feet away which hid a secret camera inside that was recording the whole time! He told me to call my parents because they were expecting my call. He had already got their blessing! He even picked the perfect ring by himself (which I found later that I had tagged almost an identical ring to it on my pinterest account in which he has no access to and had no idea about). It was the perfect proposal and it could not have been any more perfect for me!”