Keith and Krystal: Engagement

My cousin Keith and I grew up as best friends; he was like a brother to me. We stayed up some nights until the sun came up talk­ing, laugh­ing, and enjoy­ing life to the fullest. We then grew up and I always had the adven­ture bug to get out of my home­town and explore other cities. I lived in Kansas City, Chicago, and now San Fran­cisco. Though the two of us have been apart, he will always hold that spe­cial place in my heart no mat­ter what. So to be a part of his engage­ment to Krys­tal was a spe­cial honor for me and it truly made my heart smile.

I had been wait­ing for our Florida vaca­tion not only to lay on the beach for 6 days straight, but even more so because Keith was get­ting engaged. I had known about it for what felt like for­ever and I con­stantly won­dered how it would all go down. All I did know was that I wanted Vitaliy and I to cap­ture as much of it as we could. Lit­tle did I know that we would not only be the pho­tog­ra­phers of the event but also deliver a lit­tle part of the sur­prise for Krys­tal — the pic­nic bas­ket (or bag in this case because we were with­out our usual resources on vaca­tion) for the sun­rise pic­nic break­fast he had pre­pared for her after the pro­posal. Yes, it was a sun­rise proposal!

Keith and Krys­tal — I love you both so much! You had a beau­ti­ful engage­ment and Vitaliy and I were so happy to be a part of it. Now I will be impa­tiently wait­ing for your wed­ding day!

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We didn’t pho­to­graph the actual pro­posal as that is a pretty pri­vate and inti­mate moment, but we did sneak up and pho­to­graph their sun­rise pic­nic after the pro­posal. This is the view from Vitaliy’s hideout.

After the pic­nic was over, some of our fam­ily all ran down to the beach to con­grat­u­late the happy cou­ple with this sign and we all shouted “OMG, Baby!” It turns out that Krys­tal says this quite often. hehe!

This is Keith point­ing to where he pro­posed; they walked down the beach together while the sun was just com­ing up. How romantic!

This is Krys­tal jump­ing up and down with excite­ment as she recounts the pro­posal to all of us. I love it!

A few of my favorites from the morn­ing. Such sweets moments!

This was an amaz­ing fam­ily moment that I’m so happy that we were able to cap­ture. My uncle Dave (Keith’s dad) recently lost his bat­tle to can­cer. They hud­dled as a fam­ily and ded­i­cated a moment to Uncle Dave. “We love you, Uncle Dave!”

I love this moment between Krys­tal and her soon to be Mother-in-Law. She is blessed because my Aunt Terry is the best!

And a big con­grat­u­la­tory hug from her soon to be Brother-in-Law Kyle. Once again, she is blessed. I love you Kyle!

I just love this moment! We were on our way back to the condo from the beach about 6:45am and there was Krys­tal walk­ing up to strangers, “I just got engaged! Look!” And the cra­zi­est part is that Keith told me she would be doing this all day. He sure knows his fiance because she started with the first per­son she saw. I just love her!