She Said YES!

Want to know what we did over the weekend? It was a pretty exciting Sunday to say the least - and after keeping "The Plan" quiet for over 3 months I am THRILLED that we can finally let the cat out of the bag!

My baby bro and his precious girlfriend fiancé Michelle are ENGAGED!!!

Want to hear how it all went down? Of course you do. Let me tell you - the Bennett boys are pretty great at planning EPIC proposals. My little brother Brent proposed to his wife by hitting a knee on the swinging bridge at Rock City in TN. (Still SO glad he didn't drop the ring! Talk about risky!) And what did my baby brother do? Well, he carved this into a tree on my family's land...

... while he waited for the perfect date (7/22/2012 to be exact, apparently 7 & 22 are two of Michelle's favorite numbers) to propose.  Then he bought the most gorgeous ring, and went to GREAT lengths to keep it a secret from her for months....

He asked for her Daddy's permission 3 weeks ago, and then planned a trip to visit a different church Sunday so he'd be sure she was dressed up the day of. When he picked her up Sunday morning, he told her to grab her boots b/c they needed to get a game camera out of the woods for a friend after church. Considering he does that sort of thing all the time, she didn't get suspicious...

The game camera was strategically positioned to hide the heart in the tree.

Jaron talked to us months ago about videoing and photographing the whole process - so we were READY! Saturday we did a "dry run" to time everything out.... and Sunday morning we got up, got ready, and waited on the phone call that he was out of church and headed to the woods. (He had changed my number in his phone to "Ben" - the name of the friend he was "supposedly" getting the game camera for!) We drove into the woods, hid our car, and hiked into the spot.

Here we are with all our gear...

2 tripods, 4 cameras, a cordless microphone (that was clipped to the tree) a black shirt (to camoflauge my camera), THE RING, rubber boots (in case we stepped on a snake) and a cooler of water (in case he got delayed).

Then we set up the ring behind the tree, clipped the microphone to the bark, did a quick sound check, and crawled into our blinds!

Rusty in his blind....

Now you KNOW if my girly girl self would crawl into a teeny, bug infested blind (where there could be snakes or creepy crawly things waiting) then I must LOVE not only my brother, but the precious girl he's engaged to!

Me in my blind... trying not to wonder if there is anything else in there with me!

Then we set up all of our equipment and waited. When I heard the two of them walking into the woods, adrenaline got the best of me. I was so afraid something might go wrong and we might miss something (either in video or pictures), and nervous and excited for the two of them. My hands were shaking terribly! Then (as you'll see in the video) Michelle got curious about the hunting blinds and tried to look in mine. My heart was pounding.... but Jaron quickly got her attention back by hitting one knee!

You can see it all unfold in the video here! I was manning Camera #1 (wide front shot) while taking photos, and Rusty had Camera #2 (tight on Michelle's face).

Jaron and Michelle get ENGAGED! from Rusty Jackson on Vimeo.

After she said YES (or, rather, shook her head yes through tears) and Jaron revealed our locations, we crawled out to hug them and take some posed pictures. The lighting was terrible (super bright in spots because it was midday - super dark in others because of the woods) but I think we managed some pretty good shots. Maybe I have a future in engagement photography?! I LOVE the way this first photo turned out!

After the posed pictures we headed back home to share the news. When they walked in the front door there was a CONGRATS sign waiting for them!

I'm pretty proud of this little sign that I made from black textured paper, stencils, white paint, gold glitter paint, and rhinestones! I think the "O" made into a diamond ring really added a cute detail!

Mom & I also set up this little area for them with pictures, flowers, cupcakes (with engagement rings on top), wedding magazines, and a SHE SAID YES! sign! (I made the sign as a "dry erase board" by framing silver glitter paper and writing on the glass in front of it!)

Think my mom is excited?!?!

(Please ignore how terrible my hair looks - I had just climbed out of a 100 degree hunting blind 

in the middle of the woods and only had time to change my clothes! Ha!)

All in all, I think it turned out to be a pretty perfect proposal. Jaron did such a great job thinking of all the details, and we told him that he made the smartest decision of his life when he picked Michelle! We are so excited for them and I am THRILLED to be getting another SIL!

*For those of you who know Michelle & Jaron - feel free to post your own Congratulations in the comment section!