Family Story: Hall & Bennett Family Beach Vacation & Surprise Proposal

Y’all, we are SO EXCITED to share this one. It involves a first for Ashley… Being surprised with photographing a surprise proposal! Eeee! 

Casie Hall is a regular around here. Ashley knows her from when she found Story Photographers and reached out to us for her first wedding, years back. Ashley had a quick connection with Casie and they became friends after that. Over the years, Ashley has shot her family and, over this time, she has become really good friends with Casie! Y’all may recognize her as the owner of Three Oaks (who we love around here). With Ashley and Casie both being small business owners, they’ve of course done a lot of meeting, talking, and growing together. It has been really cool for Ashley to watch their relationship grow from client, to friend, to good friend over the years! So, this surprise shoot with her was especially exciting for Ashley.

Ashley hadn’t met Casie's boyfriend Levi yet, then he reached out to her with “some camera questions.” She knew he and Casie had been dating for awhile, and Casie had amazing things to say about him. Of course, she was really excited to meet up with him, talk about camera stuff, and get to know him a little bit!

She knew they were going on their first family vacation with both sets of their kids together to Topsail Beach. While they were meeting, they talked about how it would be really cool to do a family shoot with everyone, and they could surprise Casie with that! It would be so special for Casie, and be the perfect little gift. So, they hatched their surprise plan!

Day of, everything was going perfectly! Casie had been told that Levi had asked Ashley for some tips to take pictures of them at the beach himself. The girls had all picked out matching tie dye dresses at a beach store and Casie had chosen her black dress. She thought LEVI was just going to take their pictures on the beach as a sweet gift to them, based on what he had learned from Ashley. Well, then Ashley shows up! Casie is surprised and the girls go crazy! It was so much fun.

Then, plot twist!!

The shoot was almost done and Levi cleared the kids out. He then pulls out a ring and PROPOSES to Casie on the beach!!!

Casie and Ashley were BOTH surprised!! Casie looked at Ashley like, “did you know about this part?!!” And Ashley is like, “NO!! I didn’t know about this part!” Haha! It ended up being a really incredible, sweet moment to witness, photograph, and celebrate. Afterwards, Ashley and the gang had a really wonderful day of hanging out on the beach together. It was a magical day, full of love!

Congrats on your engagement, Casie and Levi! We’re so excited for this next chapter of your story.