Christmas Photo Shoot—and Surprise Proposal!

Right after Thanksgiving, photographer Melissa McCrotty announced a contest where she'd give one couple a free photo session. Lance, who first fell in love with his now-fiancée Kathryn in fifth grade, entered immediately. In his email to Melissa, he wrote:

"I don’t know if this will make any difference, but I just bought Kathryn a ring, and if you happen to pick us for the contest, I will propose at the end of the session."

That won over Melissa, and they began planning this super cute Christmas-themed photo shoot!

christmas proposal

The Proposal

Here, photographer Melissa McCrotty's account of the proposal:

"Lance and Kathryn had been talking about getting engaged for awhile, but because of a recent car accident, Lance was pretty confident he had her convinced it was going to be several more months until he would be able to actually purchase a ring. However, we knew the girl in her would have to wonder if this shoot might not be a good time and be on the lookout. So we decided to wait until the very end of the shoot. Lance came up the with idea, and it was precious….and I even got to play a part in it!

"One of the coolest features of our shoot location was a wishing well. When we were technically finished with the shoot, I started to say my goodbyes and thank them, then suddenly 'remembered' one more shot I wanted to get….'Guys, this may be totally cheesy, but I had this one last idea…… for you guys to make a Christmas wish in the well,you know, to incorporate the cute wishing well?' I dug around in my camera bag for two pennies (which Lance had prepped me with) and stepped back to shoot the 'wish'."

After dropping in their pennies, Lance grabbed the rope and made his wish come true.

christmas proposal