Hey! Henry here. It’s probably easiest for me to tell this one. There are lots of details that I probably won’t be able to fit in this rendition of the story, but this should give you an idea of how (with a lot of luck and the grace of God) I was able to surprise Abigail with a proposal. So I asked Abi to marry me on October 31st, 2020. Working backwards, I started planning and scheming three or four months before. I knew roughly that I wanted to ask her mid-to-late fall, so I came up with several different ideas on adventurous and creative locations but eventually landed on an idea that balanced out a few key variables. After receiving permission from Abi’s parents, I found out they were scheduled to come into town the week of October 23rd until November 1st anyways, so that established my timeframe. You see, Abi knew a rough timeline. And Abi is particularly hard to surprise. And I am a photographer, so the second another photographer popped up, it would be over. I had to be crafty. At the beginning of September I called one of my best friends, Tyler, who had recently been engaged. As it happens, I had already promised to give them a free engagement shoot. I suggested that we use the cover of shooting their engagement as the opportunity for me to propose, and instead of having a photographer, I would just teach Tyler to shoot with my camera. I set up a meeting with Tyler to go over the story, all the details, and teach him everything he needed to shoot a proposal (with little-to-no previous experience). We decided that we would drive out to the Great Salt Plains in Central Oklahoma on the last Saturday of October, the day before Abi’s parents were supposed to leave town.....

While I had given Abi a rough timeline, I had done a few things to indicate that nothing was happening that particular week. Firstly, we had just been out of town in Bentonville, AR with my family the week prior. It would have been the perfect time to do something. Then the night before, we went to a really nice dinner out with both our parents and watched the sunset over Tulsa. Similarly, would’ve been the perfect time for something. That Saturday was Halloween. Another little detail that I had slipped in earlier was that I didn’t want to get engaged on a holiday (why compete, right?). That brings us to the day of. Tyler and his fiancee met us at our house, and we drove the three hours out to the Salt Plains. We had a great time, listening to music, talking about their wedding plans, etc... Everything was going so perfect, it stood to reason that when we got to the Salt Plains, the gates were closed. Of course, what I hadn’t realized was that they closed for winter, and had shut everything down the week before. Photographer-mode kicked in and I started apologizing to Tyler and Ashlyn (it’s their engagement shoot, remember?). I said, “Let’s just drive around and see if we can find a big field to shoot in.” Just a few minutes later, we passed a nice dirt road by a big field. After a few minutes of taking photos of Tyler and Ashlyn, Tyler offered to take photos of Abi and I. I “reluctantly” agreed and as he took a few photos, he had us look in opposite directions and I got down on one knee. And the rest is history :)