Celina + Evan

photo | Mack Eveland Photo

CELINA + EVAN

Santa Barbara Trip Turned Proposal

A week before Thanksgiving, Evan and I took a trip to Santa Barbara to visit his sister and their family. The trip almost didn’t happen because we were waiting for the arrival of my niece, who was born the day we left. During the flight I had asked Evan if he was excited about visiting because he didn’t seem to be as happy about traveling like he normally is. He assured me he was, but he was just tired from the week.

Once we arrived in Santa Barbara we spent our first full day visiting The Douglas Family Preserve. After taking in the views, Evan’s sister Erika, suggested we go check out Francheschi Park, a cute and intimate park that offers a panoramic view of the city, while she put her kids down for a nap. Evan was up for the adventure and even suggested that we take sunset pictures since we would be there around that time. Unbeknownst to me, this was all part of his plan.

We went back to our hotel to get ready for the park and dinner afterwards. I was having a hard time figuring out what I wanted to wear and for the first time, while Evan was ready to leave within five minutes. He asked me if I was almost ready, and I told him that I was feeling very rushed. I told him that I wanted to look nice for dinner and felt gross from spending the afternoon out and about. I made a comment about going another day to visit the park and Evan quickly responded, that he thought I wanted to go and take sunset pics. I assured him I did but just felt a little overwhelmed with having to get ready so quickly. He assured me I looked great and we left for the park.

Luckily we had a rental car because Evan was driving zippy as we made our way to the park that was perched atop a winding road. Once we got there Evan told me he was going to scout out a place for us to stand so he could use his camera and tripod. Once he found the spot we took a few photos together. At this point it was past sunset and starting to get dark. I asked to look at the photos and was surprised to see that they were horrible. Evan is a photographer and graphic designer. He is always meticulous about his photos and work, so I was confused as to why the photo was so bad. I told him that the photos were too dark and that I couldn’t see us in them, he told me that he could lighten and edit them. I kept telling him they were too dark to edit and insisted we take more. At that point Evan grabbed my hands and said it was fine and not to worry about them. I immediately noticed that he was breathing heavily and I asked him if everything was okay. He told me he was just winded from jogging around to find a good photo spot. I didn’t think much of it, but then he pulled me in for a long embrace and I questioned what was going on because he seemed “off”. He then told me there was another reason why he brought me to the park and proceeded to get down on one knee.

I was completely caught off guard and my initial response was “What are you doing?!” to which he replied, “You know.” I started crying at the realization of what he was doing and kept crying while he told me the sweetest things, and asked me to be his forever. I said yes. He pulled out a porcelain ring box that had a beautiful custom Bario Neal cluster diamond ring.

We are getting married June 1st in Driftwood, TX and can’t wait to start our forever.