A picnic in Wendy Whilety’s secret garden is a delight, but couple it with a proposal and you might just have our perfect day! Rhys managed to sweep his love, Steffanie, completely off her feet, and he invited Candid Chaser to capture it all!

After meeting in the most random of ways- as newbies to the city Ikea bound Uber in San Francisco,t the pair soon discovered they had mutual friends.  “one Friday a new friend asked me if I was open to helping an Australian fellow pick out furniture for his apartment.” remembers Steffanie ” I had nothing better to do and agreed to! The next thing I knew it, I was sharing an Uber with Rhys and another friend on the way to Ikea. Funny enough as we started talking he recognized my last name, Arnott, as the name of the company that produces Australia’s famous biscuits. A fun way to get to know someone. We became good friends and a year or so later we were in a relationship. 6.5 years later here we are!”

Scroll on to watch their romantic proposal unfold!

The proposal was an utter surprise for Steffanie who was firstly spoilt with a decadent picnic. She tells  “For our engagement framed the day as a romantic date to ourselves ( we have a three-year-old so having solo time is very special) as we arrived to the gardens I couldn’t quite make out where we were since it had been a while since we had been here. Upon arriving there was our favourite music playing (Rufus du Sol) beautiful boutique of flowers, delicious arrangement of chocolates, fruits and croissants, it was quite exquisite.

Shortly after he handed me a gift which was a book he made of our memories over the last 6 years. I was crying by the first page since it was so special and obviously took so much thought and time. After going through the book he got down on one knee and asked me to marry him. It was a beautiful moment for both of us. We embraced in happy tears and kissed. Our good friends popped out of the bushes (they helped set up the beautiful array) and congratulated us. All the while our wonderful photographer was stealthy and quiet capturing the moment behind the scenes without me having a single clue.”

The pair then spent the afternoon with their photographer to take some “we just got engaged!” romantic portraits. “Given Rhys is a photographer himself he was looking for someone who could capture the moment in a beautiful way.” explains Steffanie ” He was going for romantic and that’s exactly what we got.

Our photographer was wonderful! Experienced, creative and easy to work with. He made us feel special and captured such a wonderful and special moment by allowing us to be us and directing us in a way that was natural, fun and in the moment. The pictures he provided were one of a kind, all of my friends and family were in awe.”

On what they love about one another, Steffanie tells “We love our mutual sense of adventure, we love to travel, explore and try new things it keeps us on the go and enjoying life together. Our sense of adventure has allowed us to explore music festivals, and national parks in the USA, visit different countries and keep an open mind about the world.
We have a strong foundation of trust and love that we’ve built over the years enduring everything from travelling, parenthood, the pandemic, moving and so much more. Our love continues to grow with each day and love that we have each other to share life together.”