Josh + Casey: Engaged! Camp Shiloh/ Skylands Manor- Ringwood, NJ

I’ve known Josh for over 20 years now and to say that we’ve been through some crazy times in our lives during that time would be an understatement. When he told me he was thinking about proposing to Casey, I was SO excited to be a part of it, and couldn’t wait for it to happen. When the planning of it came down to the last night I was in New Jersey, I was thrilled it all worked out and when he told me his plan it got even better! I’ll let Casey explain it from her eyes below (Below the pictures)Due to the nighttime nature of his plan we did a mini session at night and a full Engagement session at Skylands Manor the next day. Big thanks to Josh for coming out and helping with video.

As far as I knew we had dinner reservations for that night at 7:30pm at one of Josh’s favorite restaurants. It was his birthday eve and if anyone knows me, they know I take them very seriously.  (Side note: when I received the text that afternoon from him verifying the dinner reservation time for 7:30, I responded with a joke “so we will be engaged by 9, then?” This very much freaked him out and I heard about all of that later)As we were getting ready to leave for dinner I had asked him if we could go across the street to the retreat center/camp that his family owns and operates to see if a package that I was waiting for was mistakenly sent to that address instead of his. (This is where he had the whole event pre-planned and set up so of course he casually said, “sure, we can do that”) As we pulled into the gravel parking lot a light went on in the gym/lodge building down the hill on the property and he asked me “did you see that?” I of course said “yeah that’s a little weird.” We went into the main house and looked around for the package, it wasn’t there. On the way out of the house I walked back to the car and he stopped and said “I think we should go check on things in the gym and turn the lights off. “ To which I responded, “Sure, but let’s drive. These are my new shoes and I don’t want to scuff them so soon.” (This was obviously not part of his plan) He said, “Noo, were gonna walk! Come on.”

I reluctantly began the trek to the gym, my arm through his and making it known about every other step down the hill that I was not pleased that my shoes had to undergo this kind of treatment this early into their lifetime. When we got to the bottom of the hill to level ground and my foot hit the entrance to the gravel walk way to the front door, the building lit up. Maybe it was the overwhelming moment of it all, but the timing was ridiculously on point.  There was a walk way lit on either side with lights which led to a circle created by those same lights with a lace blanket and flowers. The building was wrapped in lights with care and attention to spacing and detail, and up on the A-frame there was spelled out in lights, “Marry Me” Although it takes a while to describe all of this, it happened instantaneously.

Josh led me down the path he created and stopped me inside the circle. He got down on one knee and he said that he loved me, that there was no one that he would rather spend life with than me, and then he asked if I would make him the happiest man in the world by saying yes to marrying him.

I leaned down and kissed him as he tried to stand back up and as I said yes, fireworks went off. I am not talking about the fireworks inside my head either. Real, genuine, huge, actual fireworks that he had his friend set off behind the bushes. It was beautiful, it was perfect, and it was everything I had ever wanted and so much more.

Now for the sparkly part!

The ring is from a jeweler I found over a year ago named Ken and Dana Design. Most girls narrow it down a bit more, I simply gave him the name of the jeweler I wanted.  However, after he had already decided on this one, I sent him the link to the Jeein and said “I have finally decided, it’s this one.”  Amazing how perfectly that worked out!

My ring is named the Jeein. It is a round cut, 1.2 carat diamond surrounded by 42 intricately placed diamonds weaving at the base of the main stone. All of that is set on a band consisting of another 14 diamonds. This ring definitely meets the criteria for Ken and Dana’s description of her…”She glistens from every pore of her entity.”