Neyland Stadium Proposal || Channing & Ryan

Neyland Stadium Proposal

Okay, I cannot wait to tell you guys about this Neyland Stadium proposal. I actually photographed Channing as a bridesmaid several years ago at another wedding. When it came time for her boyfriend to propose, he started talking to Channing’s best friend Katlyn. Katlyn immediately knew that Channing wanted me as her photographer and actually was the one to reach out to me and arrange everything. In the middle of emailing about proposal details, we also came to realize that my daughter and her son are in the same class at the little preschool they go to. Talk about a small world. Anyway, we were chatting about how the proposal was going to unfold and timing and all the things when she told me that her and Channing were supposed to hang out a couple days before the actual proposal. Ryan (Channing’s bf) asked Katlyn to throw Channing off by telling her that there were some issues with the ring coming in and it looks like it’s going to be a couple more months so she didn’t need to get her hopes up around the holidays. Meanwhile, Channing’s church made plans with her to help them film a “promo video” in Neyland stadium to promote this new thing at their church. Because she was prepping for a “promo video” she went and got her nails done that weekend with Katlyn. While they are hanging out, they start talking about potential wedding vendors that Channing may want to use and she brings up wanting me as her photographer. Katlyn acts completely clueless as Channing starts looking up my profile on Instagram. Then she follows me. Mind you, I did not know any of this was going on between Channing and Katlyn and am distracted shooting a wedding when the notification comes through. The next day, I see the alert that Channing has followed me and I’m not going to lie, I for sure thought she’d figured everything out. I text Katlyn a screenshot of the follow notification and Katlyn eases my nerves by telling me how the whole thing unfolded. Made perfect sense and she was in fact still completely clueless to the Neyland Stadium proposal plans and it was going to be the biggest surprise ever.

Game time comes and I meet Ryan, Katlyn, & Katlyn’s husband outside Neyland. The tour guide brings us into the stadium and hides us in the locker room while he goes back to get Channing and the film crew from her church. While we are waiting in hiding, the sprinkler system (which is more like a farm irrigation system) starts watering the field and is completely dousing the exact spot that Ryan plans to stand for the proposal. We start panicking. Oh no. Oh no. Oh no. So we text the tour guide and ask if he knows any possible way to get the sprinklers turned off for just 10 minutes. Thinking there’s no way they are going to stop watering the UNIVERSITY OF TENNESSEE FOOTBALL FIELD just for us, they actually do. I don’t know if they actually finished watering or if they paused it just for us, but the water was off just in the nick of time and that’s all that mattered! So here comes Channing, walking down the hallway, followed by a camera crew. They tell her to walk out of the tunnel toward the field, the same tunnel that the TN players run out of on game day. As she’s walking, she looks up to the jumbotron to see “Channing, will you marry me?” sprawled across it. She turns around in total surprise to see Ryan walking toward her, me shooting over his shoulder, the video guys shooting over his other shoulder and it was the most authentic surprise I have ever seen. He totally and completely threw her off guard and she did not even come close to seeing it coming. It was amazing. Pure happiness. Tears of joy. Love flowing through every crevice of that stadium. So freaking special. I am completely honored to have gotten to witness such a precious moment.

There’s one more piece to the puzzle that I can’t help but share with you. I know to some people, these things sound like coincidences. I know to some, it’s just happenstance. But I am a full believer of Jesus and the way He works and the way He cares and there were little tiny pieces to this story that just shows how much He loves us.

1. The day of this Neyland Stadium Proposal, it was off and on spitting rain for the hour leading up to our time together. It would spit some, then go away. When we got tucked away in the locker room, before the sprinklers start monsooning, it was raining kind of hard actually. We had made a “rain plan” in case it was raining really hard. The rain completely stopped.

2. The sprinklers miraculously turned off.

3. The jumbotron person got the right message up there at the right time for Channing to actually see it at the right second. How that all worked out, I have NO idea because we had no communication with the jumbotron guy. And just to be clear, that is not something normally included in the Neyland Stadium tour packages.

4. Channing had one of her best hair days ever… she actually said those words to her sister before she left her house for the “promo video”.

5. I actually had their day open on really short notice in one of the busiest months of the entire year.

6. My child and Katlyn’s child are IN THE SAME TINY PRESCHOOL CLASS?!?!! Like, what are the ever-loving chances of that?!?!

I love how the Lord went before all of us and intricately wrote this beautiful story and we are just getting to live it out and make connections when we can.

I’m a Knoxville Wedding Photographer that loves to travel. I shoot anywhere! Click here to contact me with any questions you have about pricing or booking! If you liked what you saw above, go ahead and follow me on Facebook or Instagram to see my daily updates of the latest sessions!

See more from Amanda May Photos:

Family Session at House Mountain

Wedding at Castleton Farms

Engagement Session in Downtown Knoxville