This proposal was near and dear to my heart, because the bride-to-be is my sister. This post is going to be a bit longer than our others, because I got to be part of the plot!

When Kinley approached my parents to ask their permission to propose to Rachel, I crossed my fingers that I would get to be part of the proposal. I was honored that Kinley asked me to help him plan everything!

We originally lined everything up for late March, but then corona happened, and clearly we had to reschedule! The first plan was for Rachel and I to get together for a photo shoot of the two of us and our dogs, as a present for our parents. She had no idea that he was planning to show up that day and pop the question… or so we thought.

We had a tip off from one of her friends that she was suspicious – it seemed extremely odd to her that my trip to see her in Lexington just happened to coincide with Kinley planning to be out of town. We quickly scrapped our plan and moved some things around!

I told her that the photographer I booked for our photo shoot wasn’t available on that Friday as planned, but we could still do that shoot on Sunday. Instead, I wanted to take Friday to explore downtown Lexington, take some travel pictures for a blog post, and get dinner for a girls’ night. She shrugged it off, and then we were back on track!

I turned my GPS location to where she couldn’t see me on my way into town, and arrived earlier than she was expecting me, so that I could scope out locations with Kinley while she was at work. We almost gave the secret away when she called and asked where I was – she goes “Oh I just talked to Kinley, and he just left that area, you must have driven right past him!” Luckily, she didn’t guess that we’d just been meeting to talk about her!

When we were getting ready to go out to dinner, I tried to inconspicuously steer her into cute clothes instead of jeans and a T-shirt, while Kinley watched TV and studied for a big test. As we walked out the door, Kinley tried to text the photographer, but instead texted RACHEL saying “Okay Rachel just left”. We got lucky again and she assumed he meant the text for a friend he was ‘meeting for dinner’. Phew!

We made our way to Thoroughbred Park, and I told Rachel to pose for some pictures with the big horse statues, before we made our way up the grassy hill. She commented on how beautiful the weather was, saying “It’s so nice today, there are even photographers taking pictures! And look, that guy’s wearing a suit! …Is that Kinley? What’s going on…” And the rest is history!

Kinley proposed with an heirloom ring that had been left to him by his grandmother. It features one stone from his great grandmother, and is paired with a second stone that his grandfather used to propose. His grandmother had them combined into the setting (pictured) during the fifties, and wore it until she passed last year. It was a bit small for Rachel, so she wasn’t able to wear it during their photos, but has since had it resized. Kinley will be wearing his grandfather’s wedding ring, so the pair of rings will be reunited once more.

The only time I saw Rachel cry all day was when she called mom to give her the news. Mom was so excited and informed her that they would get up early the next day and drive up from Atlanta to celebrate! We went off to take more pictures at an ice cream shop that Rachel and Kinley frequent for date night.

After we finished there, the photographer had them face away for some cute pictures while we got the last surprise in place. When she had them turn around again, both of their families were standing right there – this time Rachel was speechless! Kinley and I worked hard to sneak his parents and sister in from Charleston, while our parents were stealthily driving up from Atlanta, and she was shocked.

We assured her there were no more surprises in store, and went into a brewery to make a toast to them and celebrate before heading to dinner at another one of their favorite spots. The rest of the weekend was spent celebrating with friends and family.

Photography Credits to Veronica Sparrow Photography

Comments are closed

Cannot load blog information at this time.