I have a friend who’s a planner. You know the kind. The ones who are always throwing the party. They’re the same ones who have their whole day planned out, including yours and you didn’t even know it. Efficiency is their middle name and if they’re on time, they’re late. I know you have someone in your life just like this. The one you can NEVER surprise. Well, I’m here to say it can be done. It is actually possible to out plan the planner. And that is how this story begins.
My friend is a travel agent who plans destination weddings and any other trip you may want to take, so when her soon to be fiance, Lanny, called me and told me he wanted to propose to Shaunette, we had our work cut out for us. He told me that he knew she wanted to have the proposal photographed, but we knew that if Shaunette caught any glimpse of me it was over. We also knew that any hint of a nice date and she would be on to us. He told me he wanted to propose at the top of Beacon Rock where they had gone on their first date. Well, that complicates things, how was I supposed to get up there with them without being seen? So, we concocted a plan to set up an inspiration shoot. An inspiration shoot is done among wedding professionals, they get together with other vendors and set up a little scene so the photographer can photograph it and then the vendors can have photos for their portfolios.
It just so happened that I had a meeting with Shaunette about two weeks before and I just happened to mention that I was doing this inspiration shoot the next week at Beacon Rock. She said, “Oh, that’s cool, that’s where Lanny and I had our first date.” Oh, really? Who knew. The next week I called in a panic, “Shaunette, the models I booked for this shoot backed out and I really need some models, would you and Lanny come? I could really use your help!” She told me she would see what she could do, she and Lanny were supposed to speak at a career day in his friend’s 7th grade class. For the record, there was no career day, Lanny had made up an excuse to make sure Shaunette didn’t book anything that day. Remember the girl’s a planner. She called me back to tell me they were in. Awesome. So glad it worked out.
When they arrive, of course, Lanny and I have to pretend like we had never spoken before. In Shaunette’s world we had never met. The shoot went off without a hitch and Lanny and Shaunette were great “models”. I even made up a whole story about how the shoot was thought up by my friend, Wendy, of We Plan It, but that she had called me earlier that morning to say she couldn’t make it because she had a family emergency so I had to set everything up by myself and asked my mom at the last minute to help me. It turns out I’m a pretty good liar. I had told Shaunette that Wendy wanted a few photos at the top of Beacon Rock so she would need to come prepared to hike up there. So, when we were finished with the picnic off we went.
We finally made it to the top after a few photo ops and I told Shaunette and Lanny that it would be cool if we could fake a proposal. Wouldn’t that be so nice for Wendy. I pulled the ring box out of my pocket which Lanny had so quietly passed off to me while we were on the trail. He so galantly said he might be able to fake something to say. He pulled out his phone and began to read a poem he had written for Shaunette. She looked at him and said, “Wait is this real?!” Yep. Surprise!
