Drone photographer stumbles upon Chicago couple’s engagement from the air
CHICAGO, Ill. (WGN) - Under the wood pavilion in Lincoln Park, a local photographer accidentally caught a Chicago couple’s engagement.
Bret Habura was using his drone to photograph autumn colors in Lincoln Park on Nov. 1 when he saw something that caught his eye.
"Some guy is down on one knee, and I just remember thinking 'if he is and I’m right, then I need to make sure to get this shot,’” Habura said.
Back on the ground, Bryan Bradshaw was indeed proposing to his girlfriend Abbie Schmeling. Bryan, who met Abbie almost two years ago at a church event, had it planned it two weeks before.
“We got there about 4:30 so he said 'we have about an hour to kill' so I was like ‘alright,'" Schmeling said. “He was really confident on where we were going and I was like 'why do you know where we are going?’”
Bryan’s a bit of a romantic. Every month, the young minister writes a love letter to Abbie.
“The things that we’ve done, the fun that we’ve had,” Bradshaw said. "Just wanting to create a place for us to look back on in our relationship.”
On the walk to Lincoln Park, he handed Abbie his latest missive.
At the end, it said, 'I choose you and in about 5 seconds, I guess we’ll find out if you choose me,’” Bradshaw said. “And that’s when I got down on my knee and asked her to marry me.”
Bryan had a friend nearby to capture the moment on the ground, but he had no idea Habura captured it in the air.
After Habura realized he captured an engagement, he posted the picture on Instagram. Within a day, he found Bradshaw and Schmeling. This weekend, Habura met up with Abbie and Bryan to discuss the lucky picture.
"The pictures were enough and this was just icing on the cake of being so awesome,” Schmeling said.