So if love isn’t your jam you better turn away now because all month long, as part of The Proposal Issue, we’re celebrating that “pop” moments and Emily and  Riley’s has to be one of the most beautiful ways to kick us off!

With Christian Marc Photography behind the camera, a mountaintop at Mount Cannibal became the scene of the surprise, which caught Emily completely off guard.

But first? We have to start the story at the beginning, the very tale of how this two came to be! Emily shares the tale “We met through mutual friends at a club actually, as our mutual friend was trying to set me up with another friend haha. We all decided to be friends but Riley and I never bonded that much until we were forced to go alone to the beach one day as our other friends had cancelled. We spent the whole day at the beach together and had so much fun and realised that each other was actually pretty cool, and our friendship blossomed from there. We were both going through rough times with our own closest friends (separately) and found support and comfort within one another, which eventually developed into something more.”

The proposal story was set with an unexpected hike, Emily telling “Riley had planned to take me to Mt Cannibal so she could fly her drone and we could take some photos. Leading up to this day I had come down sick with a cold and kept cancelling the plans. I did not want to hike up a hill when I was sick and Riley was devastated and kept trying to convince me I’d be okay and to keep the plans going. After me saying no all weekend, it got to 9.30pm on a Sunday night and I said okay tomorrow will be fine let’s just do it. (I’d started feeling a little better and I could tell Riley was sad that we weren’t going).

“Meanwhile she is texting Christian saying it’s on, it’s off, it’s on etc. On the day we got there and she said she lied about the difficulty of the hike and it was steeper than she’d said. I was annoyed as I still wasn’t 100% so I turned into brat mode and said I wasn’t carrying anything up the hill. We got halfway and I began to love her again.”

“When we got to the top she flew the drone up and I was distracted by the man I saw taking photos of us that looked like Christian (who is our friend). She distracted me for a photo and then before I knew it she was down proposing and I didn’t actually believe her. I told her to stop being silly and to get up. I didn’t actually believe her until I saw the ring. Of course, I said yes and I was over the moon happy!”

“I have always loved Christian’s work so had always said that one day I’d love for him to photograph us. So Riley secretly booked him in and she knew I wanted the proposal photographed so I was super happy that she did that.”

On what she loves about her future wife, Emily shares “I love how childish Riley can be in the best way. She brings me back down to earth sometimes and reminds me to just have a little fun and embrace the inner child in me. She is driven and smart and handy and she always makes me laugh. She’s fun and unique and I’ve never met anyone quite like her. I love how she makes me feel so comforted when I need it, and she looks after me when I need it, and she encourages me all the time and most of all she believes in me.”

Riley tells “I love Emily because she is so smart and she makes me feel like I can do anything. Every day together is an adventure. She is always so patient and focused. She always loves me no matter what. She is so pretty when she smiles that it makes my heart race and I love coming home to that face. She makes me feel special, she knows me better than I know myself, and I just want to love her for the rest of our lives. We make a great team.”

In their years together, these two share many fun stories, including an unexpected incident at a wedding fair! They tell “We are also photographers and we went to an expo one time and we were sitting at our expo stall and there was a guy across the room who’d been playing music all morning. He stopped for a break and made his way around the area to say hello to other suppliers. He came over to us and after a very brief introduction he pointed to us and said “Mother-Daughter?” Referring to me as Riley’s mother (mind you I am 4 years younger than Riley!) I thought he was joking until he profusely apologised and slunk away awkwardly. We will never stop laughing at how ridiculously hilarious it was!”