You guys!  If you’re the type that gets swept up in romance stories, especially those that involve exotic travel and passionate propeller plane departures, you’re going to swoon all over this airplane engagement session from Florida wedding photographer Captured By Belinda!  Kelsey & Isaac have known each other for almost a decade, eventually falling deeply for each other.  As Kelsey puts it, “Isaac was my perfect tall, dark, and handsome, with glasses, braces, and an Australian accent tucked away in a gingham shirt and wrangler jeans”.  With Isaac being from Australia, the couple found themselves globe trotting, becoming all the more enamored with the travel life! When the time came for their engagement shoot, they’ll knew the perfect fit, a chic propeller airplane engagement session!  Finding the just the right spot at a private residence, the duo was able to work with not one but two small prop planes!  With a couple outfit changes, the couple created a chic world of passport stamps and movie like moments.  There is such a great sweetness between the two, something that jumps right through the screen.  My favorite series of them all has to be the ones where Kelsey dons a knee length muted metallic skirt & sunglasses, something that reads oh so perfectly chic!  As far as airplane engagement sessions go, this is easily a favorite!

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The Love Story

Isaac & I will have known each other for nearly a decade when we get married this year in Lakeland, Florida. It’s hard to bring to life a love story that spans almost a decade, so bear with me; I promise it will be a treat!

We met at art school in the fall of 2006 in Toledo, OH. We had both been looking for our next class, when we crossed paths. As serendipity would have it; it was together. Isaac was my perfect tall, dark, and handsome, with glasses, braces, and an Australian accent tucked away in a gingam shirt and wrangler jeans. He recalls being enamored with my pale skin, black-dyed rocker hair, and innocent bright eyes. We became fast friends that semester, always deeply entangled in conversation in our quiet corner of the room, on whatever philosophic topic of the day.

When we had met, we were both beginning to outgrow our first loves. Our connection was unsettling, and when we parted ways from our past, we found ourselves together (April ’07). The love was short lived, as we soon realized, as many do, that your “first love” can be entirely too hard to “get over”. We stayed friends though, always hopelessly confused/in denial over the connection and passion we unwantingly felt. To be honest our hearts have always been ready before our heads.

I ended up moving to Columbus to finish my degree at a more specialized art school. Isaac stayed in Toledo, graduated, and immediately landed freelance work as a graphic designer. We stayed in touch, despite seeing other people. I moved back to Toledo, after a failed attempt to open a boudoir/wedding studio (perfect learning experience for a naive business owner), and began my MBA. It was there that Isaac & I decided to work together on freelance projects, and the team became together, made it pretty evident that we were in our own way.

Now, just because I will leave out some of the hard stuff (involving two stubborn- independent-committment-phobes), doesn’t mean that things weren’t messy from time to time. That being said, once we decided to commit to each other (Aug ’12), the synergy flowed; not just in our daily relationship, but in our goals and aspirations. In that first year together, we would spend hours at the local metroparks strategizing, and just dreaming. I’m not sure if being from another country is part of it, but the thing that fears/amazes me is Isaac’s ability to not only seek paths that go against convention, but to actually bring them to fruition. Let me explain.

It was during one such day-dreaming-picnic-of-sorts that we realized that Australia’s seasons are directly opposite from our own in Ohio. When it is snowing and dreadful in America, it is clear summer skies in Australia. Being a wedding photographer, and Isaac already able to work remote from wherever he is (as he does each year he returns home to AUS), we realized we did not have to be tied to a one locality. As artists, to marry someone from another country would not be a sacrifice, but an expansion of your world of possibility. The concept of being 6 months in American and 6 months in Australia, allows us to spend time with both sets of family, work unconfined to an office, and have a business not be limited by seasons!

In our lives and in our marriage we want to leave our children and families with a legacy of freedom, culture, travel, and ingenuity. Besides going back to Aus every year, we will be vagabonding for our honeymoon, and hope to find a duplex to own & support this lifestyle. Even our conceptual children will also enjoy dual citizenship (an unplanned tradition-of-sorts started by Isaac’s Aussie Mum & his American father), and be able to find their own path through this world.

Flight, for this reason, is huge for us, and is why our engagement shoot, with our phenomenal photog Belinda, was so focused on travel, and planes (which she sourced for us!). A little more mushy, Isaac also proposed to me, on a hot air balloon ride in July. We had spent months of designing this beautiful art nouveau ring with Anne from David Fairclough. White and rose gold, complete with pink diamonds & sapphires from Australia, AND a center diamond from America. I can only say I can’t imagine a more artistic fulfillment for an artist, than to have a piece of wearable art, and a memorable story!

Might sound corny but the only thing that comes to mind when I look at my handsome aussie is “Come Fly with me”. Him and flight are the same; a lot of unknown, a lot of trust it will work out, but as soon as you see the view from the sky there is no going back to seeing things from the ground.

The Proposal
On July 11th, 2014, Isaac treated us to a Hot Air Balloon Ride in Cincinnati, OH. Our feet hit the floor at 5 am in a rush to lift of at 6:15 am at Sunrise at a small airfield just outside of town. After doing a splash and go on mirror-esque lake, we soared over a river and lush landscapes, brushing tree tops to arrive at a “Hot Air Balloon challenge”.

Though what I was told was a target (a common Hot Air Balloon contest), turned out to be a sign with the words “Will You Marry Me?” written on it. Isaac got down on one knee, and though his very distracted girlfriend was obsessively taking pictures out the other side of the balloon, he was as patient as he could be. In the zone, I was interrupted by not only the Pilot’s incessant barking “What does that sign say?!” and “look at the sign!”, Isaac also prompted me with a swift tap on the leg. After finally seeing the sign, I dumbfoundedly turned to Isaac, aghast that the moment was here. Sweet, simple, and unscripted, Isaac asked “So uh, Kels, will you marry me!?”. To which I failed to audibly reply, but Isaac knew my excitement and “oh my gosh”s were a definite yes!!

Though me shaking my head was enough for Isaac, the pilot and the news crew back at the launch site (who happened to be there for the balloon festival as well), wanted a concrete answer.
EASY ENOUGH: “YES!”

 

Vendor Love

Photographer:  Captured By Belinda | Makeup: Faces by Shannon