You may remember a few months ago I announced that our very own Ashley got engaged! Our office is so excited to have another wedding in the works for 2011 after spending 2010 working on my wedding! Anyway, back in September Ashley’s fiance Tyman approached me about helping out with his proposal. He had everything planned out, but was looking for a photographer and videographer to capture the special day so I went to work right away! I approached the talented  Aaron Shintaku and he was on board! I was then connected with Modern 8 Films ,by my friend Amy over at Wedding Chicks, and they have quickly become one of my new  favorite film companies  to work with. Both were such troopers given the last minute notice and scorching temps at the proposal site and captured everything perfectly!

Tyman and Ashley love to be outdoors and took up geocaching as a hobby early on in their relationship. If you’re like me and you’ve never heard of geocaching in your life : ) it’s basically a treasure hunt for people who enjoy the outdoors and like to hike. Containers filled with little trinkets are hidden all over and the coordinates are logged online so people can download the coordinates and hike out to find the cache. The cache is usually hidden under a rock or in a tree and always contains a log which people can sign and when they get home log it on their computer to keep track of all the caches they’ve found. Sounds pretty complicated, but once you get the hang of it it’s really not : )

Anyway! Tyman knew early on he wanted to propose while out geocaching and hiked 17 miles to find the perfect spot – a beautiful oak tree on the edge of a ridge in the Santa Clarita mountains. He sent his good friend and Ashley’s brother ahead to lead the cameras to the spot, set up a picnic and to find the original oak tree cache and replace it with the new cache which contained the ring. All went according to plan until Ashley literally got heat stroke hiking in the 105 degree weather! But somehow Tyman persuaded her to make it up to the tree and find the cache where he popped the question and she said YES!! Little did she know the entire proposal was being documented as a perfect keepsake for this special day.

Ring designed by Mike Gurunlian through jeweler Karen Hogue

Photos by Aaron Shintaku

May you be inspired,

Leila