Mar 23, 20192 min read

Mikayla + Ricky Downtown Cincinnati Engagement

This was just such a fun day! I loved being sneaky and helping get these two engaged (I really didn’t do much, but I did finally get the binocular machine working...more on that later). I love these two and am so happy they’re engaged!

So the day started out with Mikayla knowing we were going to get some pictures of the two of them downtown. We were going to recreate a photo from their first “date” at the top of Carew Tower (tallest skyscraper in Cincy). Ricky said he was hungry, so we stopped at McDonald’s (what I didn’t know was that he was giving Kris time to pick up Jake). Mikayla ordered off the lunch menu 14ish minutes before lunch started. Classic mistake. So we waited 14 minutes...and some... finally we were on our way, and we sent Kris the text letting him know (he had already been in place for 10 minutes when he found out we were leaving McDonald’s😂).

So we went up 45 floors then got on a creepy little elevator and went up 3 more floors to the top of the tallest lookout in the whole city. I don’t like heights. Just thought I’d throw that in there.

Here’s when the trouble came. Ricky only had so many quarters, and we had to get Mikayla to focus on Kris and Jake standing in a patch of grass down by the Ohio River. It wasn’t easy. I even asked about the machines and told some strangers, “He’s trying to get engaged, and the thing won’t work.” All the while, here are some thoughts Mikayla was having: “Why hasn’t she taken any pictures?” “Why do they care about these dumb lookout things. I’ve already seen Cincinnati.” “They are children.”

We finally got it working on the LAST quarter, and I gave Ricky the thumbs up. I had tried to position the binoculars on Kris and Jake, but when Mikayla looked through she said, “I love this river.” Face palm 🤦🏻‍♀️. Ricky gently nudged her to try to find people, and that’s when she said, “Marry me?” in a confused kind of voice. Then it all clicked.

Keep scrolling for the photo of Kris and Jake.

When we got to the bottom of the tower, Mom and Dad Wilder were waiting with flowers. Also none of Mikayla’s friends would answer right away, so she FaceTimed me in the same car because she just had to tell someone.

Then we made our way to Kris and Jake who had been chilling in this grass for over an hour. Precious people. They even made it on some random dude’s Instagram live because he thought the whole thing was cool.