The Couple:
Karlee and Colby met their senior yeara of high school and had an instant and undeniable connection that a few years of long-distance couldn’t shake – he went to the University of Oregon all 4 years and Karlee went to community college about an hour away for her first 2 years. They graduated from the Lundquist College of Business together in 2015 and decided that moving to Los Angeles would be their next chapter… 8 years later, they are best friends and in love.

The Proposal (written by Karlee):
Colby had planned to go to a park nearby in Palm Springs, one that was similar to the surroundings of Joshua Tree, but it ended up being closed (poor guy was freaking out). At this point, the sun had set behind the mountains and I was quick to say it was okay and that sunrise would be just as nice the next morning! He was insistent though, so I mentioned the windmills since those are out in the middle of flat land and close to the road. He sped out of Palm Springs and thankfully we managed to find a pull-out instantly! We sat in the back of our Jeep for a few minutes before wandering out into the middle of the windmills taking pictures of the orange glowing scene and each other. The wind was insane, my hair whipping every which way and tangling around my face, Colby’s shirt dancing around and clapping against his body, but it made our pictures more fun to capture.

After playing around with shots of each other and pointing at the sun getting closer and closer to disappearing, Colby decided to find a big rock and some smaller rocks to sit his phone on for a timed picture of us together. I do remember flagging this as odd in my head, but again chalked it up to nothing since we don’t get many pictures together. On what would have most likely been the last take and instead of immediately grabbing his phone to check how it turned out, he held me and kissed me and looked intensely into my eyes. I thought he was just in the beautiful moment of the orange and pink-hued sky and the wind from the windmills, but after some chance banter he made a comment about his “knees shaking” and “not knowing how to do this” that I then realized something was up and that he wasn’t just taking a timed picture, but was taking a video. Combining that with his teary eyes it clicked what he was trying to do, I lost it.

I hope you enjoy the images from their romantic outdoor engagement session.