Imagine you've just gotten engaged in the most picturesque way, on an exotic dream vacation. After your big moment, a kind onlooker comes up and tells you she's captured the moment on her phone. When you give her your email, you're a shaky mess and can't type properly. You live in different countries, don't have any other contact info, and probably no other hope of ever getting that picture.
Such was the sad situation of Scottish couple Michael Kent and Fiona Newlands, who got engaged last week on a snowy, nearly empty street in Reykjavik, Iceland, according to Today.com. Jessica Bowe, a Wisconsin native living in Iceland, had just left a bar when she witnessed the romantic scene. "I was just standing there in shock, thinking, Is this happening? Is this what I think it is?, It was a surreal. It was like a scene from a movie," she told Today.
She waited a beat before showing the couple her photo and had Kent enter his email address in her phone, which he failed to do properly. "We went back to our apartment; I checked and there was just no email, so I went, 'Oh, I wonder if I put it in wrong,' so I worried, and the next day, it still wasn't there," Kent told the site.
Fortunately, we live in the age of uber-connectivity. When both parties realized what had happened, they began to spread the word. Kent posted his dilemma to Facebook and Twitter, with a photo of the empty street, writing:
"Dear Internet. Last night I proposed to Fiona Newlands in Iceland. A random woman took our picture as it happened (we didn't know she was there). In the aftermath I didn't take the ladies contact details and I'm worried I gave her the wrong email. If we could find that picture it'd be incredible. Below is the scene of the crime. If we can't find it, that's life I guess, I'm still very lucky."
Meanwhile, Bowe had a friend at the English-language site Reykjavik Grapevine post her query to their Instagram and Twitter accounts. Eventually, the good people of social media reconnected Bowe and Kent. Not only did the couple get their photo, they were able to meet their angel photographer again.
"I usually post Instagram pictures of cats, jogging trails, randomly parked cars, sunsets or decorative latte foam, but I think after this I need to take my photographic style in a new direction, a la Humans of Reykjavik or something," Bowe told the Grapevine. "Or maybe a surprise engagement i-photographer for hire. Quality high-res photos not guaranteed.”
OPENER IMAGE: Instagram.com/jrbowe.