We're engaged!!!!

We have some very exciting news! As many of you know, Paul & I were engaged on December 14th!! Well we have finally had some free time (after the all the craziness of Christmas), to put together a slide show of the day.

But first, the story.... So we've been planning a winter hike with our dear friends Jacklyn & Chris of JAG Studios. We originally planned to hike up Mount Monadnock in New Hampshire on December 6th, but we ended up booking a last minute job for that day, so we postponed it until the following weekend. Anyway, Paul found out on Saturday that most of the states up north had declared a state of emergency because of the crazy ice storms that hit that area on Thursday night. Thousands of people were without power and the damage from the ice storm had taken out countless trees and devastated many areas. Then he found out the Mount Monadnock State Park was closed due to "unsafe" conditions, which hasn't happened in like, a hundred years. However, Paul wasn't going to let that foil his plans to propose to me. Jacklyn & Chris have a Sportsmobile, which is an indestructible truck meant for traveling in the most treacherous conditions. And we are all very experienced in winter hiking....Paul and I have been up Mount Monadnock in the winter, icy conditions, four feet of snow...you name it, we've done many, many times. We love it, and Paul knew that it would be a very special place to propose. And so we made the journey up north.

It was such a magical day... The ride up was absolutely breathtaking. Everything- branches, leaves, grass- you name it- was encased in sparkly ice. We just had to stop several times to fotograph this otherworldly winter wonderland. I actually commented at some point about how lovely it would be to fotograph an sparkly engagement ring on an icy branch (little did I know I'd get to do that very thing later that day!)





We got to the mountain a little on the late side to make it all the way to the top, because you don't want to be hiking down icy terrain in the dark. So, we agreed that we should turn around no matter what at 3 pm. Jacklyn and Paul of course had been conspiring where and when "it" would happen if we couldn't make it to the top.

Jacklyn and myself wanted to make sure that we took a minute on the way down to capture some images of the magical scenery surrounding us. So we agreed to stop at a gorgeous overlook, where you can see most of Vermont, and put our stuff down to take in the beautiful sunset that was forming in front of our eyes. Jacklyn hung back with her camera, and just as I was about to take out mine, Paul came over and told me Jacklyn wanted to borrow her wide lens back from me. So he brought Jacklyn the lens and came back to me. I was stretching and taking in the beauty and crispness of the air. He says that "Jacklyn wants to take a silhouette of us" in the beautiful landscape, and I say to him "What do you think we should do?" Just then, my Paulie gets down on one knee, opens a box with the most beautiful ring and says "How about this?...Krystal will you marry me?" I was speechless at first, and then tears started to roll down my cheeks and I said "McNerney!..Does this mean you're going to marry me?.....okay!" Paul says that I said it the cutest little voice....I'm such a dork, but it's okay because so is Paul, and that's why we are perfect together, and I can't wait to marry my soul mate....my best friend.


Though it felt like we were the only people on earth for several minutes, from afar Chris was watching and Jacklyn was there fotographing, tears streaming down her face, capturing in the most beautiful way one of the most memorable moments of our lives together. And we can't thank her enough for the art that she has created for us....we will always remember the way we felt that day when we look at the gorgeous, emotional images she captured for us!! Jacklyn and Chris we can't thank you both enough for sharing such a special day with us....we love you guys!!!


Although Paul and I have always been realized how blessed we are to have the ability to capture real moments not only with our cameras but with our hearts, we really haven't experienced the other side of having these moments captured for us. It means the world to us, and gives us another perspective on what an honor it is to provide such meaningful images for our clients.
We really are blessed to be living our dream photographing with our hearts.

Mom and Dad, family and friends.....we finally did it!!! We are so excited to plan our wedding and can't wait to celebrate with you all.

Please enjoy our slide show : )

Love, Krystal and Paul

And here are some of our favorites from the day.....





My ring on the end of our crampons. How hard core are we!!!









My first ring shot of my own ring!!!



And here it is...a sparkly engagement ring (my sparkly engagement ring....yipeee!!!) on a beautiful icy branch (creatively lit up by our headlights).