9.28.19

Joe asked us to be there to capture the moment he asks Marina to marry him. Being a part of this moment was something we could not pass up.

The weather on 9.28.19 was not forecasted to be ideal with a high percentage of rain in the forecast that afternoon we were concerned we would get rained out. We moved up the time frame we would be at the engagement site with the hopes that the weather would hold off. The plan was to have Joe and Marina walk past the spot where he would get down on one knee, hike to the end of the trail and then on the way back they would go up on the rock overlooking the gorge and he would ask her to marry him. Well just after they passed us the rain began to fall and it caused them to halt their hike and wait under a tree until the rain died down. Roughly 15 minutes later the rain took a small break and we could see Joe and Marina appear in the distance heading towards us. We pretended to be filming the wildlife that was flying around the misty gorge when we saw Marina and Joe step up onto the rock, we slowly turned to avoid Marina realizing what was going on. Joe pretended he was going to take her picture looking out into the gorge, but instead he bent down on one knee, reached into the special sock he ordered to carry the ring, and pulled out the ring box. Moments later he got her attention and as she turned around her face was shocked and excited all at once, he asked her if he would marry him and she immediately said yes! It was such an exciting moment, and as he slipped the ring on her finger the moment continued.

Up until this point, Marina didn’t even realize that we were there to film this moment for them. Once she realized why we were there we laughed about the series of events and all the unexpected rain. We spent the rest of the afternoon getting to know Joe and Marina more and learning their story. As we talked we learned that Joe and Marina had met through their church youth group but they didn’t start seeing each other until one night at a Sabres game when Joe saw Marina had posted about being at the game. He messaged her and they talked about where they were each seated and Marina shared with Joe how she never catches the shirts they shoot into the crowd. It just so happens that Joe had caught one of those very shirts that night and decided the best way to get Marina’s attention was to wrap the shirt up and leave it on her car. From this point their story truly began…