Let’s thank the great Almighty for making this monumental moment possible.

And Gisele Bundchen’s helicopter teacher.

Stacey Howe states: “Let’s celebrate the newly-married, Mrs. Cagwin’s wedding! She’s been married for months now and we haven’t celebrated yet!”
Please.
Right there, that should have been my red-flag. Stacey Howe would never allow such an important event to go uncelebrated. She celebrates like she gets paid to celebrate….she specializes in it. Brendan couldn’t have chose a better person to involve in his well-planned, thorough, Excel spreadsheet-laden proposition. They’ve never even met….but her legend precedes her.

“Meet Mipsy and I at Copley and we’ll head up to Top of the Hub and wait to meet the Almighty ladies, in all of their post-pedicure fanfare, and we’ll celebrate the newly married Emily!”
Stacey baits the line, and I bite. We meet, because I’m always up for some Almighty interaction. We 3 head up to the 52nd floor & we check-in with the hostess (who, in retrospect, seemed a bit bajiggity.) She struggles with where to seat us and I make the brilliant suggestion to seat us near the window while we wait for the rest of the group and despite other people lingering at the bar, waiting to sit, she ok’s my suggestion and we settle in.

We chat about teaching. India. Running. Ex-girlfriend’s coffee cups. It wasn’t necessarily deep conversation, but it was important, nonetheless, as girlfriends always work to know their friends on a deeper level. And the whole time, I’m thinking “How long can a dang pedicure take? They’re just a block away, for God’s sake….”
Mustafa, the TOTH manager, swings by our table and asks how things are and shares a pair of binoculars with us, saying “Ladies, you have a great view and we like to share binoculars with our customers so that they can enjoy the scenery from this high up.” Nice touch, I thought. Sounds reasonable.

So, Stacey oohs and aahs over the view…..takes her time looking around. Melissa does the same. She’s excited and she’s pointing things out. They finally hand the binoculars to me and I gaze out a bit. Look some things over. Put them down for a minute so that I could get back to gazing at my wine. Then, they point out that “Look! A helicopter is coming this way!” So, I look. I see it coming. I’m not all that overwhelmed – I mean, it’s not like it’s Air Force One flying in the airspace between the Hancock Tower and the Prudential.
But, I notice it’s coming in quick and as it begins to get closer to the windows, I can make out the word “Marry”, so I immediately say “Oh, look! Someone’s getting proposed to.” and I hand off the binoculars so that Stacey can see. And she pushes them back at me and says “Yeah, it’s you!”

Natalie: “Huh?”
Stacey & Melissa, in unison: “That’s Brendan! This is for you!”
Natalie: “For who? Wait…what?”

…and then, with my mouth hanging open and sheer confusion all over my face, Mustafa comes over with a big sign that reads “YES” on one side and “NO” on the other and everyone tells me to stand up and respond to him! To put the sign up against the window and tell him YES! Photographer friends appear out of nowhere and are snapping each dim-witted look on my face.
Everyone in the Top of the Hub is standing up and clapping and waiting. BRENDAN is outside, in a helicopter, hanging in mid-air with a sign that reads “Natalie – Marry Me!” and I still am just standing there – punch drunk and speechless.
Finally, I make it to the window and I put my hands up to the glass and I hold that YES up high. He waves – and he flies away.

People are clapping. Two photographers are shooting at me (now I know how you feel, brides) and I’m dazed. Stacey tells me that Brendan is landing the helicopter at Logan and coming over right away. I wait. Champagne appears. Hugs. Shrieks. Questions. Congratulations.
…and finally, he was there. Wearing the same DC sweatshirt that he was wearing when he left the house earlier that day, telling me he was going to wash his car. The same sweatshirt he was wearing when he weaved a web of perfectly organized fibs – all with the plan to enact the most epic of proposals. And epic it truly was. TOTH staff noted that this was the very first helicopter proposal where the man was outside the window, waiting, ever. They almost exclusively get planes with banners.
More clapping. Kisses. Huge, silly, loony-looking smiles. He’s on his knee with the most perfect ring for me – a ring I couldn’t believe he was capable of choosing himself. An ideal blend what he wanted for this moment and what he knew I would want for myself.

The hoops that were jumped through, the walls that were scaled, the roadblocks that were overcome to make this possible cannot be explained. City permits for helicopters. For landing at Logan. Police permits for flying an aircraft between two buildings. My words cannot truly do it justice – he had it all figured out, down to the smallest detail.

And today, we spent the day in Montpelier. Killington. Woodstock and Rutland. It was a perfect day of aimless driving with no plans, that followed yesterday’s perfectly planned, perfect day. One year ago today, we were in Derry, Ireland and I sat there at dinner, wondering when this would ever happen. And now, I’m thinking that this year went by way too fast. Don’t miss out on enjoying the moments with the person you love, preparing to enjoy future events. It’s taken just 24 hours for me to realize that, now that I’m faced with preparations, all I want to do is enjoy the moments.

So, now….a Boston Wedding Photographer is just….a bride. And a groom.

So, Almighty & Emily – it was because an opportunity and a celebration were dangled in front of me that I was coerced over to TOTH, so keep on being your bad selves.

We’d like to take a minute to thank everyone that made this possible. Stacey Howe, Stuart Matsumoto, Melissa Mips, Don Lavange, Amol Patankar, Jessica Lavange and lastly, but surely not least, Mustafa @ Top of the Hub Restaurant. Also, the FAA, BPD, Boston Properties and probably Homeland Security (You can take the undercover van off our property, now).

Our friend Serjeo of Boston for crafting the perfect, fine hand sculpted diamond ring: Serjeo of Boston

Our friend Stuart of Metropolitan Helicopters: Metropolitan Helicopters.

Mustafa Hadria(Manager Top of the Hub Restaurant): Top of the Hub.

…and most important of all to Brendan, for choosing me – and for hovering and waiting for me to say ‘YES’.

Here is Stacy’s Story…

Here’s what I wrote right after Jake and I got home from our engagement weekend in Ogunquit, Maine.

Saturday morning, Ashley (my sister) and I had taken our Grampy out for breakfast to celebrate his birthday. He turned 87. Random cute note- at breakfast I asked Grampy out of his 87 years of life, what his absolute favorite memory was. Without hesitating even a second he said “That’s easy; the day that Janny said ‘ok!’” Janny is my Grammy Janet I had no idea that later in the day I’d be saying okay!

Anyway, we finished breakfast, got our nails done, and then Ash and I came up to the apt. but I accidentally forgot my keys. Jake came to let us in but ran ahead down the hall and shut the door on us. That’s not really out of the ordinary b/c Jake is a goofball. So I get to our door, and there’s a giant neon posterboard on our door w/Jake’s handwriting: Welcome home! It’s March 7th!

Sooo I’m kind of like yay March 7th… hmmm?? And he let us in. We walk in, and he has a nice shirt on and “Ya’ll ready for this” playing on the computer. Ashley and I are cracking up b/c Jake’s acting like a weirdo and playing a jock jams favorite and I have no idea whats going on. I asked him what’s up with the sign, what’s March 7th and he says “You don’t remember?” and I am like “no…” “I can’t believe you don’t remember!” So now I feel a little bad and I’m hoping I didn’t forget a special date or something from last year haha.

So the music is still playing (hilarious) and he tells me to sit down on the couch, that he’ll help me figure it out through clues. So he gives me a whole bunch of clues and I have to use them to find little gifts; a watch, a cutting board, a box of chocolates, a scratch ticket… I swear on earth the thought of engagement had not crossed my mind once during any of this! Ash was taking pictures ‘with her new camera’ and making comments like ‘wow, Jake, you were this bored!? We should have taken you to breakfast with us!” I was just feeling bad that I had obviously forgotten something fun or important!

So after some Jeopardy music while I’m roaming around trying to find these things, and watching Jake do some classic dance moves, he says he has one more clue, but he needed to blindfold me, and I had to spin around 3 times and count to 30 hahaha so that’s what I did. When I was done, he said ‘open your eyes’ and I said ‘theyre open!” and he said “take off the scarf and turn around…. b/c…..” and as I turned around I saw him on his knee holding the ring out and he said ‘I wanted to ask if you will marry me’!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Sooooo it took me a good full minute to even be able to breathe or say anything and then I started sobbing and kissed his head and said of course I will marry you!!!! And then we smooched and I was brought back to earth a min later and saw that Ash had gotten pictures and videos of the whole thing and she was crying and we were all crying and hugging and it was wonderful!

Then Jake told me not to get too settled, that I had to hurry up and pack my bag for an overnight b/c we were going to Maine and needed to check in before 5 haha so off we went

I have to say, it was the PERFECT engagement. Jake thought of every little detail, and the way that he got me so confused and caught me completely off-guard was everything I would expect from him. I love Jake and I’m so excited to be his fiancé!!!!