Our Engagement Story

Location: Giraffe Manor in Nairobi, Kenya, Africa. Known for its charming manor house and endangered Rothschild giraffes.

Introduction: James and I dated for 6 years before he decided to propose so he had to go big! We love to travel so I had always told James I wanted a destination engagement, is that a thing?

The Planning

The plan to propose started off while planning our one big trip that year. Well I, Ana had seen pictures of Giraffe Manor and fallen in love but I never thought it would be possible to visit, it’s all the way across the world! Well little did I know that it wouldn’t take much to convince James as he was trying to plan the big proposal!

Then came the hurdle, Giraffe Manor was so popular that it was almost completely booked! Since we were only planning months in advance, openings were scarce. We almost gave up! We worked with various travel agencies and finally after a couple of weeks found one that had a date available. It was meant to be!

The Execution

James contacted Giraffe Manor without me knowing and set up the proposal and a photography session during tea time. James didn’t have to do much to convince me to do a photoshoot. I mean who doesn’t want a photoshoot with these amazing giraffes? Such a bucket list moment!

Tea time came around and we were ready to feed the giraffes and get our photoshoot done. Well little did I know that James was going to propose and have it all captured on camera turning this into our engagement photoshoot! I just remember him saying he wanted to continue to explore the world with me and of course I said YES!

The Ring

James and I had talked about what I wanted my engagement ring to look like. We had gone into stores and tried some on but nothing caught my attention. I wanted something different and unique. So I started looking at Etsy and Instagram.

I had found Laurie Sarah Designs on Instagram and fallen in love with her morganite rose gold rings but couldn’t decide which style I wanted. Well James ended up picking the ring and he did an amazing job! He picked the style of the ring which was engraved with our initials on the outside of the back of the ring. He also picked the color as morganite comes in different shades of pink or peach.

Photography by Thandiwe Muriu through The Safari Collection at Giraffe Manor.