It is a funny thing being the holder of a big secret. I liken it only to Jeff knowing he was going to propose and not telling me anything till it was happening. I wanted to give him a surprise – albeit one he saw coming – and document his reaction with a photo shoot. For this, I enlisted the help of a good friend and former co-worker, Briana Caster. She is an amazing photographer and was so helpful in making this as stress free as possible for me. Because Jeff is crafty and pinteresty, etc, I was worried he would really see it coming, or wonder why in the world we were having a portrait session when our last one was only about 6 months ago. In the end, Brianna suggested telling him it was to help train a new photographer on her team and this worked brilliantly. Of course he got right into helpful teacher mode when we met Alex – giving her friendly tips from his days behind a camera. That was great because it assured me he didn’t know what we were really doing there.
But of course I was a bundle of nerves anyway. I don’t love being in front of the camera – go figure! – so it takes me a while to warm up. Most of the session was just me trying not to look super awkward but when it came time to hold up my “I’m pregnant” sign – all I had to do was hold it and I got that wrong – it was upside down for a ½ second! Opps! But once those words got straightened out and he got the message, his face went from highly confused, to super excited and that was worth all the nerves in the world. From my standpoint, the reality set in slow and his initial “REALLY!?” sounded to me like he thought I was pranking him. It wasn’t until we took a breath and relaxed and he looked at me and sort of half whispered “awesome!” that I knew he was stoked. Lots of hugs and giggles and some tears came next but I felt totally relaxed in his arms.
To round out the evening I had told him I’d take him out to dinner for being a sport and helping Briana – so we ate Bang Bang Shrimp at Bone Fish – sooo good! And he treated himself to a fancy glass of scotch. Maybe he was a little nervous after all 😉
