Steve & Amanda’s Offbeat, Water Balloon Engagement Pictures ~ Part 2

We are back with Part 2 of Steve & Amanda’s awesome Pittsburgh engagement session by Pittsburgh wedding photographer, Michael Will Photography! I teased the second part of their shoot at the end of Part 1 – so I am sure most of you guessed … but if you haven’t, sit tight!

I wrote yesterday morning about how some couples aren’t into stylized shoots or acting like stoic models for their engagement shoot – Steve & Amanda were this type of couple, so I helped them brainstorm something fun they could do, during their shoot. Initially Steve wanted to play in the fountain in Pittsburgh, but it had already been winterized, so instead, I suggested they take this idea from Ruffled and make it their own.

And oh boy, I really think they did … I know you guys will love this Part 2 :)

Batter’s Up! Steve & Amanda’s Water Balloon Engagement Session

I love Steve’s reaction through the burst water

Amanda’s turn!

And now for something completely different!

Click inside to see the aftermath and the rest of this awesomely fun, water balloon engagement AND to read Steve’s amazing proposal to Amanda :)

The proposal [from Amanda’s point of view]:

I woke up on Thursday, May 26th reluctant to go to work. It was my last day of work before a four day holiday weekend, but I had to get through one more day. When I left for work I woke Steve up to kiss him goodbye for the day, just like any other ordinary work day. I went out into our parking lot, got into my car, turned it on, looked up at the dashboard… and became suddenly confused. There was a Birthday card, a big yellow daisey, and a stack of other cards wrapped up in a ribbon.

Steve set up the car when I got up to shower.

Puzzled, I opened and read the Birthday card (we already celebrated my birthday a week ago!) to find out that Steve had called me off work for the day. Instead I was going on a Pittsburgh scavenger hunt! I didn’t know if this was just a practical joke to make me even later for work than I already was so my first reaction was to call Steve to see if this was serious. He confirmed it was and told me that each card in the stack had a time written on the front. I couldn’t open them until that time. He also told me that he had made me a playlist on my ipod, and that I should turn up the tunes for my day of driving.

My first two thoughts were “this is way better than going to work!” and “if I’m not going to work why didn’t he let me sleep in?!”

What followed next was a string of events … each leading Amanda to her next stop, via the cards in the pile. Steve setup the following stops:

1. Breakfast with her dad and sisters at her house

2. Followed by mani/pedis with her sisters

3. Then it was off to lunch at Ruth Chris with her mom

4. An hour long massage

5. And then the final card had her going back to her apartment in Monroeville ….

I’ll let Amanda tell the end of the day … once she got back to their apartment ….

Once I came home, Steve had a pile of presents for me! I kept telling him that we already exchanged Birthday presents (Steve was May 5th and I was May 20th) but he said not to worry about it.

First present (wrapped in a giant box) was two citypass ticket booklets for Chicago. Steve told me they were good for a year, so now that we had them we would have to book a trip!

2nd present (another giant box) was a print out of a tripadvisor.com review of a hotel in Chicago. He said that he thought this hotel looked nice for whenever we ended up going to Chicago…

3rd present was a printout of plane tickets… from Pittsburgh to Chicago… in a couple hours! I was soooooooooo excited! I had been wanting to plan a vacation, and this was the perfect surprise for a long weekend! We sat there for a minute talking about the flight we’d be getting on in a couple of hours before I remembered seeing a 4th box. I asked Steve what had happened to this box (planned misdirection) and he handed it to me ….

[yes, this is Steve’s last name … there is a whole page about it on their wedding website]

I opened the wrapping on the 4th box which was a shoebox. I’m always happy to get new shoes, but when I read the card it said to give Steve the box. I gave it to him. He opened it, pulled out the ring box, got down on one knee, and proposed!

You can guess what happened from there. I said ‘yes’, started balling, and grabbed Steve in a big bear hug. He yelled at me for not even looking at the ring that he put so much effort into picking out, but I was still crying and couldn’t see through the tears except to see that it was a really shiny blur!

^I still get teary reading this …. Steve had let me in on his plans months before this day happened. So I knew MOST of it [he refused to tell me EXACTLY how he was going to propose though]. But I sat at work that entire day, gchatting with him while he fretted and stressed about everything going to plan … and then a big lull in our convo happened and I waited ANXIOUSLY for the phone call from Amanda. So insanely happy for these two :)

Congratulations Steve & Amanda … I am SO insanely happy for you guys, and cannot wait to celebrate your big day next August! A special thanks again to Pittsburgh wedding photographer, Michael Will Photography, for sharing his images. There are a ton more on his blog of Steve & Amanda’s awesome water balloon engagement session, if you want!!