Chelsea & Daniel

Enjoy their session and a little story of their perfectly imperfect proposal!

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We went to Puerto Rico for a family vacation with my father and sister in March. I had done all of the research and found our AirBnB, flights, and rental car. When we arrived to our AirBnB, it was a nightmare. The beautiful condo in the photos we saw, was really a stale empty condo in a poor fishing village, with houses on top of each other and garbage around the streets. Fortunately, we had a rental car and found a Wyndham hotel close by. Unfortunately, the prices were extremely elevated so we went with an average room with two queen sized beds for the 4 of us. The sleeping arrangements were as follows: My sister and I were in the same bed, and Daniel and my father snuggled together. Thankfully, Daniel is a trooper and he can sleep anywhere and be comfortable, even if it means sharing a pillow with my father. Fast forward to day 6, the last full day of vacation. We were supposed to visit the sister island of Puerto Rico for the day, but after waking up at 430am to go to the pier to get ferry tickets, they were sold out (it was a Saturday and I guess it is the hardest day to go over). Bummed, as we had a fun filled day planned and it had all just been shot down, we made due and drove around the island and found a Hilton Resort with a beautiful beach club. The sun was starting to set, and I was trying to soak up the last bit of sunshine rays before we’d be back stateside the very next day. I remember watching Daniel snorkel around, always so fascinated by the smallest seashells, and letting out a laugh. Daniel was the only one in the water snorkeling around the shoreline, and the rest of us were laying out. That’s when I heard him say, “look Chels, I found a conch shell!” I looked up and saw he had a larger looking pinkish clam shell. I let out a loud laugh at him, letting him know that no, in fact, that was NOT a conch shell, and I shut my eyes again. I heard him walking up to me, still excited about this shell he found, and I sat up to examine. That’s when it happened. All in a blind of an eye, but also in s l o w   m o t i o n. He dropped down to one knee, and opened this clam shell. I could see my sister and father in my periphery taking photos. He said something like, “Chelsea, I want to protect you for the rest of my life. I want to grow old with you and have a life full of love. Chelsea Marie, will you marry me?” I think I kissed him before I even said yes, and when he asked me again, I said, “Let me see the ring first!” and laughed. Of course I said YES! He then tried putting the ring on the wrong hand, so I had to hint at him that he was on the complete wrong hand. Minutes after, the hotel staff came down and had champagne (Daniel had pre-ordered and told them to bring it down at a certain time) for us. We celebrated the rest of the night with lobster dinner and champagne.

That evening, the night of our engagement, I slept in the bed with my sister, and Daniel slept in the bed with my father. We both looked at each other and shared a laugh that this was the way we were spending our first night of being engaged.