The earth shook the day Krystal proposed, quite literally. While Krystal and Mary were engaged back in 2011, they had these engagement photos taken years later to include their two children.
Words by Krystal
We’ve been together a little more than nine years- since 20th August 2009.
We met online. I told Mary that we needed to meet in person after only talking for a few days so that I could make sure she was not a weirdo.
We made plans to meet at a coffee shop, and both went to different locations on opposite sides of town as there are two cafés by that name in the city. Eventually, we made it to the same place and instantly hit it off.
After the date, Mary texts me as she walked away, saying what a great time she had. We still laugh about this now as I could even see Mary as she was texting me- she tries to tell me it was her “move.” It’s cliché, but we really were inseparable from that day on, and Mary moved in with me three weeks later.
Mary refers to the day I proposed, 16th April 2011, as the day the earth shook because it quite literally did- a 5.2 magnitude earthquake hit Northern Queensland that day!
It was Mary’s university graduation day. After the ceremony and lunch with her family, I took her back to the place of our first real date, Palleranda Beach, where I had a picnic set up with champagne and our favourite sweets from a local coffee shop. I told Mary I had a letter for her, and she asked if she could lay down while I read it to her as the champagne was kicking in.
She tells me now that she was actually worried about what the letter would say as I had been acting weird and distant (nerves about the proposal) and she was concerned I was breaking up with her. She couldn’t have been more wrong! She laid down and rested, and then excitedly said yes!
About a year later, Mary then organised a getaway to Cairns. She organised it up with my boss and kidnapped me from work, and then proposed back to me over breakfast after a hot air balloon ride the following morning. It was perfect!
Photography by Josephine Carter
