Mary Fields Photography Blog

I LOVE surprises. Really love them. In fact, while Jimmy and I were dating, I would always ask him not to tell me where we were going or what we were doing for a date because I wanted it to all be a surprise. It became the staple of our dates to where even now, being married, we still follow that code. Surprise the other person with what we are doing…pretty much for every date. Makes it super fun. Well, since I love surprises I had always wanted to be surprised for a proposal. However, I had always told myself that since I heard proposal stories all the time, I would most likely be so in tuned to the ‘warning signs’ that he would never be able to successfully surprise me. Boy was I wrong…

On, October 17th, 2014, (exactly 365 days after our first date and first meeting) I was headed to Lakeside Park in Dallas, TX where I thought I was doing a family portrait session for a mutual friend of ours. However, little did I know the shoot was only a trick to get me to the park.

When I arrived, I began to do what I always do and scout out a location for the shoot. Now when I work, I get in the ZONE and am so focused on the task at hand that I tend to tune out the rest of the world. Well, this fact proved to be a hilarious part of the story as I walked right past the spot where Jimmy had laid out a blanket, a rose and a scrapbook of the two of us (he was hiding across the street). The blanket was a family heirloom quilt that I most definitely should have recognized. This was my sister’s reasoning when she helped Jimmy pick it out thinking, ‘She will know exactly what it is when she sees it and stop.’  Well, I looked right at it …but was so clueless, I walked right on by. In fact, I remember thinking, ‘that looks like my grandmother’s quilt…how strange. Oh well.’ I even walked by it TWICE. Watching from afar, Jimmy was desperately trying to think of plan B. With some quick thinking from the decoy ‘clients’, (who were not even there but communicating over the phone) I was finally redirected back to the blanket where things SLOWLY began to set in. Looking down at the blanket and seeing our faces on the scrapbook, I was so very confused. I thought to myself, ‘This can’t be a proposal! I’m on a photoshoot!’ After reading through the scrapbook he had made, though, I finally put it all together just in time for Jimmy to walk up.

He told me he loved me (for the first time) and how he wanted to spend his life following Jesus with me by his side. Getting down on one knee, he asked for forever and through a lot of tears…I said YES!!!!! It was a completely surreal moment and one I will never forget. Still in shock, I continued to be surprised when I saw our dear friend and fellow photographer, John Cain, taking pics from behind the trees. Not only that, but my twin sister came out from hiding as well as my great friend, Julie. Through tears and laughter we toasted with champagne and I tried to take it all in. He had surprised me SO well that I had totally missed it! TWICE! Who would have thought? Apparently, I AM hard to surprise…because I’m totally oblivious! To make it even sweeter, Jimmy surprised me with a surprise engagement party with family and friends. It was the absolute sweetest evening of celebration as I said yes to the love of my life. God is so so very good… and my husband is really great at surprises!

Check in tomorrow to read about our wedding day!

Happy Monday!!!

Here are some of the beautiful images that John Cain took of us! I cannot express how much I cherish these images and how thankful I am for the talent of my dear friend John. It was so very special to have him there that day. To see more of his amazing work, check out his website here!

To see more, check out the gallery below!

A Surprise Proposal

I write people’s love stories on this blog all the time. How people met, their first impressions and then how they fell in love. It’s a beautiful thing and I love telling it. Well, today, I am so excited because I get to be the subject of today’s story…

I had thought for years that maybe I would meet my man at a wedding. I mean come on…I was at one practically every weekend and weddings are great places to meet people. Or, so they say.

Well, if you have ever seen me work, you know that I rarely have time to speak to anyone besides the bride and the groom…neither of which are exactly available! So I had pretty much written off meeting Romeo at a wedding. To add to this dilemma, it wasn’t like I could hang out with people my age much because when they were ‘off,’ I was ‘on.’ A wedding photographer’s schedule is not exactly made for prime socializing.

Well, on a random day at a random Starbucks I was scheduled to meet up with a couple who were interested in potentially hiring me to shoot their wedding. Since this happens often, I was definitely not thinking it would be super significant. Sure enough, I hit it off with this couple (they are awesome) and we quickly became friends. They were the kind of people I would naturally have been friends with outside of a working relationship so we laughed and talked for over two hours. A few days later, they hired me to shoot their wedding and we began to plan their engagement session.

On a warm Monday night in early October, we traipsed around Turtle Creek in Dallas and had a blast shooting some engagements. At the end of it, the groom turned to me and said, ‘Well, we think you are great. Are you single?’ At this, the sweet bride gently hit him and said, ‘Don’t assume she is single?’ I laughed and said, ‘No it’s ok…I am definitely single.’ Without hesitation they said, ‘Well, you will probably get hit on by a groomsman at our wedding so we would love to save you a step and set you up with one  if you’re up for it?’ In my head I started thinking about the awkwardness of blind dates and while I liked this couple a lot, I wasn’t entirely sure I knew them well enough to set me up! What if he was a total creep?!

Somehow my thoughts didn’t line up with my mouth though because I suddenly found myself saying yes! I now attribute that to God’s great plan. I had always been against blind dates and yet here I was agreeing to go on one…set up by people I didn’t really know! I got in the car thinking, ‘well, that will surely fall through.’ Instead, ten minutes later, they texted me saying ‘We have the guy we want to set you up with and he is AWESOME! Let us know if we can pass along your number.’ Thinking it was kind of crazy but also intrigued, I said, ‘why not! Go ahead and give him my number.’ 

Little did I know that they called Jimmy (my now husband) on the way home and said, ‘Jimmy, mark the time and date of this call…I just found your wife.’ True story. He called me about a week later and asked me out (major points for actually using the phone). He picked me up, (also major points) and after a few minutes of awkward exchange which we now laugh about, we felt strangely at ease. He was easy to talk to, funny, goofy and yet offered the deep insight that I so desperately needed in a man. We had the greatest conversation over dinner and I was amazed at how the date didn’t feel so ‘blind.’ As a side note, I was so nervous that I accidentally left my phone at home and so my roommates were panicked that if I wasn’t ok they would never know! I was having such a good time that I didn’t even notice until after dinner. At the end of the date, he took me home and I walked inside with the strangest feeling. This was different. I called my sister the next day to fill her in and I said, ‘You know, I think I am more scared that this IS it than that it isn’t.’  And I was right.

Over the next year, I had the privilege of dating the greatest man I know. It didn’t take long for us to fall in love and to realize that we were interested in forever.

More to come about that in the next blog so check back in on Monday!

This is us with the amazing couple that set us up!