Daniel & Hannah Beth

A Notebook Proposal

Alright y’all. I’m about to share one epic story here. It’s a story that was a year in the making.

Daniel and Hannah Beth love movies, and they especially love The Notebook. They saw it together for the first time, and their favorite part of the movie was where Allie asked Noah why he hasn’t written to her, and he says that he had written her every single day for a year.

So. Daniel decides that he wants to propose to Hannah Beth, the love of his life. But he also wants his proposal to be amazing. So he has the patience to wait a whole year to make sure that his proposal is the best proposal it could be. (HOW CAN ANYONE BE THAT PATIENT?!) Come December of 2015, they had just returned home from a family vacation to Florida. Hannah Beth is living in New York, and Daniel in London. As soon as they arrive home to New York, Daniel tells Hannah Beth to repack her bags. They had another trip to take. He doesn’t tell her where they are going until they arrive at the airport. They had always wanted to come to Charleston, so she thought nothing of it. When they arrived, they were greeted by one of the lovely sedans from Absolutely Charleston, and off they went. I remember Hannah Beth telling me that as they drove over the dirt roads, she leaned in to Daniel and said, “Do you think he knows where he is going?!”

Soon they pulled up to this gorgeous white home. My wonderful friend Candice of Yoj Events opens the door for them, pretending to be a tour guide. “Welcome to the Notebook House! Our next tour starts in 5 minutes, so why don’t y’all head out to the dock? We’re filming a promotional video today, so I’m sorry about all the people milling about.” Daniel looks at Hannah Beth and says, “We’re at the Notebook house!” They walk out onto the dock, where a trio of musicians (the extremely talents gentlemen of Classical Charleston) are playing a score from the Notebook. Which is all fitting for the tour and the promotional video :) They start taking snapshots in front of the water, and in the meantime I’m standing there trying to look nonchalant, but all the while shaking like crazy, and trying not to fall in the ocean :) Daniel then asks Hannah Beth what is their favorite line in the movie, and I think at that moment it finally hit her, because she covered her mouth with her hand and could barely choke out the words, “why didn’t you write me?” That’s when Daniel dropped down on one knee and proposed.

He then led her to the box of letters that he had written her. Every day. For 365 days. WHAT?!

Can I just say that I absolutely adore how in every photo Hannah Beth either has a look of pure joy, a huge smile, or is bawling her eyes out? It was quite an emotional day. I still get goosebumps looking through the photos and remembering how special of a moment it was!

Candice at Yoj had created a beautiful lunch for them on the porch, and after they ate, we took a few more photos around the property. Absolutely Charleston drove us back to my car, and I hopped out and gave them both big hugs and said to enjoy the rest of their time in Charleston. Then, I got into my car and raced downtown so I could beat them there. Outside of the American Theatre on King street, Daniel had written a line from the movie on the marquee. Do you remember the American Theatre from The Notebook? It was so fun to go back and watch and see all the locations that are now so familiar to me. So Hannah Beth gets out of the car, looks up and sees the marquee, and starts bawling all over again.

I told you it was an epic story. Now take a look :)

The Notebook house! Isn’t it adorable?! 365 letters and a diamond ringHere they come! At this point I’m shaking and so nervous/excited! I think it’s starting to make sense… I think Hannah Beth’s mouth was in this shape most of the day. Pure shock from surprise after surprise. Look at this gorgeous china! And now to the American Theatre. People were honking and yelling congrats as they passed and saw the sign :)

A HUGE thank you to all of the amazing vendors who made this day possible: