When Alicia first reached out to me about her plans for a proposal involving the Gateway Air Tours helicopter ride, I was kind of terrified. I’m not afraid of flying, but I don’t love it either haha. Never having been in a helicopter, I was nervous but so stoked to capture such a unique and exciting session! I could tell in talking to Alicia how much the plans meant to her and how deeply she loves and cares for Brit.
I asked Alicia to tell me about how they met: “This is one of my favorite stories to tell. We met in college through friends, although we never really talked or hung out. It wasn’t until I decided to move to California and hosted a going away party and invited her to come. While she didn’t show (it’s not like we were really friends,) it opened up an opportunity for us to talk and we did just that. We were both in a relationship and not looking for another. We started talking as friends and were sharing commonalities of our current and poor relationships and confiding in one another about the perfect person and our values and really questioning ‘why’ we couldn’t just find the ‘one.’ We started talking pretty seriously in October and shortly after she asked ‘What would you say if I told you I liked you?’ I immediately stopped what I was doing and laid down in the grass beneath the California sun to reply. She caught me off guard that is for sure. That was the end to the beginning.”
That beginning was over four years ago now and they’ve truly become inseparable! Alicia told me she knew Brit was “the one” even before they made it official, and she had told her she loves her before their first date… this proposal was definitely a long time coming for her. “She truly is the yin to my yang; I’d call us a dynamic duo. We are opposites in many ways but we have learned how to use that to work for us and not against us.”
The day of the proposal I arrived in Gateway early; the ruse for my presence being that I was with the resort to update marketing photos. Arriving early with me was surprise number one: Alicia’s sister and Brit’s brother! The second surprise was finding out all four of them would be taking a helicopter tour. We boarded the helicopter after a brief safety rundown and away we went! I was amazed how different flying in a copter felt to a plane; I actually enjoyed it a lot more! The views out the window were breathtaking. Alicia mentioned how she and Brit has always talked about taking a helicopter tour one day, and it was fun to witness them check that off their bucket list!
We landed during the tour at a cabin the woods for a brunch picnic where Alicia popped the question and had a spread of Brit’s favorite brunch staples. Brit was surprised and had no clue! I think the first two surprises were all she was expecting at that point. They made jokes about all the things Brit had been saying in the past weeks about Alicia’s eventual proposal, not knowing what was in store for her. After brunch and a mini photo session we boarded the helicopter again to return to Gateway. We landed with her another surprise for the day – all her family was there for lunch to celebrate!
The rest of the week the two were going on an epic road trip with surprise stops along the way planned by Alicia. It was such an amazing and romantic day, I’m so grateful to have been there! Check out my favorite moments from their Gateway Air Canyons Tours Proposal:
