Michelle & Ruby

Not only do we have a gorgeous picnic proposal for you today – the story of Michelle and Ruby, but it turns out, that today’s shoot was actually a double proposal. Because not only had Michelle planned to ask Ruby to marry her on this very day, but Ruby had also made the very same plan for Michelle! Luckily for us, (and them!) they’d both invited Elise Mezner Photography along to their picnic, so we can share every moment of this romantic (and fun!) story as it unfolds with you.

But before we get into the double proposal, Michelle sets the scene with the tale of how these two met. “We met at a mutual friend’s birthday party. I drove Ruby home after and we became friends on social media. About a year later, Ruby started coming along to the church I was going to and we started hanging out more and getting to know each other. Ruby confessed to her friend in June 2017 that she had a big fat lesbian crush on me but I had no idea! Around August, we were catching up frequently and would text each other most days. I definitely knew I liked her but thought that I would probably never tell her. Ruby was studying nursing at the time and invited me to her uni scrub crawl towards the end of 2017 and we started dating after that!”

Ruby explains how the double proposal unfolded. “We knew pretty early on that we wanted to marry each other and we had talked about it with each other a few times. I wanted to plan something special for our two year anniversary so I organised for our friend Elise to be there to photograph me proposing to Michelle. On the very same day I made an inquiry, Michelle had also made an inquiry with the same photographer but I didn’t realise at the time! Elise told us later that she had no idea how she was going to keep the secret and plan the day!

In the end we both guessed that the other had been up to mischief and secrecy so Elise being there wasn’t a big surprise. The plans did have to change slightly as the original idea was a picnic on the beach followed by a night of glamping but the weather wasn’t kind to us. We ended up having a beautiful picnic together at the place where we would be staying for the night and it was absolutely perfect. Michelle asked me to marry her and of course I said yes!

Ruby had also made me the most beautiful photo book of the two years we spent together with a lovely commentary throughout that ended in a proposal! It was such a special surprise and so funny that we had both planned to propose on the same day.”

“We just wanted it to be a fun occasion, not too serious and we just wanted to enjoy ourselves. We knew we wanted Elise as the photographer as we feel so comfortable with her and we knew she would make it a fun shoot and not make us feel silly but just let us be ourselves. We trusted Elise to lead the shoot as we really love her work and how authentic her portraits always are.”

On her love for Michelle, Ruby says “I love that Michelle is very kind and passionate about justice and equality and learning and that she is very funny. I always wanted to marry someone funny! I also love that she is equal parts beautiful inside and out.”

There is one tale for these two, that Michelle (and perhaps Ruby) would rather forget, but it’s one that is part of their history, says Michelle  “Ruby absolutely loves dogs and dreams of having a dog one day. Unfortunately, we’re not able to have one where we are living currently. Last Christmas, I bought Ruby some pj’s from Peter Alexander and saw that they had a toy Dachshund (Ruby’s favourite breed of dog) so I bought that for her too.

I’m not sure why I thought it would be a funny joke and not a cruel trick, but I decided to pretend that the toy dog was real and put it in a box, poke holes in the lid and give it to Ruby like that. I reasoned that she knew we weren’t allowed pets so she would immediately know it was a joke and not actually think it was a real dog. Well, I was very wrong!

When I brought the box out as planned, Ruby burst into tears of absolute joy thinking I had bought her a dog and even made a special arrangement with the landlord to allow us to have one!

I immediately regretted my decision to play the prank when I realised Ruby thought it was real and once she opened the box, her tears changed from joy to absolute disappointment and sadness. It’s probably the meanest thing I’ve ever done!”

“I love Ruby’s kind and compassionate heart and the way she always makes people feel valued and important” notes Michelle. “She is also hilarious and never fails to make me laugh. She is stunning and quirky and so much fun to be around. I love that I can be completely myself around her and I love the way we understand each other so deeply.”