This photo isn’t a particularly great one, nor does it come close to capturing the beauty of a New York City skyline at night. The exposure is a bit off, the colors aren’t all there, and the graininess is a little too visible for my liking. But for me, this photo doesn’t capture an image. It captures a precise moment in my life, timestamped at 1:01 AM on May 28, 2014, on the rooftop of The Nolitan Hotel in NYC, when my boyfriend of 8 years (is it 9, now?) proposed to me. At the exact moment I took this photo, he got down on one knee and I’ll be honest with you, I was one sappy mess.

It was perfect, just the two of us on that roof, and although I have no photos of us from when it happened, I’ll forever have the moment captured. You see, the sneaky guy suggested we go up to the roof to take night photos of the skyline. Well, gosh darn, that made perfect sense to me because OF COURSE I need photos of that exact thing for the blog, ya know? I’m always looking for that perfect photo op. Well, he had other plans, which, in retrospect, seem really obvious – who wants to go up to a roof at 1AM? But at the time, it just wasn’t on my mind. That’s not to say that it wasn’t on my mind during other parts of the trip – you know, the sweet stroll through Central Park, the talks of going to the top of the Empire State building, the romantic dinners. During those times, I was like YUP I think I might get proposed to. Aaaaaand it never happened, so I guess you could say I had given up by the time he actually did ask me – HIS PLAN ALL ALONG. After 8 years together, it’s hard to surprise me because I know all his moves, but he somehow managed to do it. And I said yes, of course.

More NYC photos coming soon.