Romantic Gallery Engagement Session in New Orleans

Shanel and Edson’s love story began on the campus of Southeastern Louisiana University.

Having seen Shanel around campus, Edson continued looking for opportunities to get to know her better. A little skeptical at first, Shanel soon “broke out of her shell” and they began communicating regularly. The more time they spent together the more they began to realize how entirely compatible they are with each other. It wasn’t long before their relationship became official and Edson began planning their perfect proposal…

Continue reading all about Shanel and Edson in their romantic gallery engagement session in New Orleans – captured by MunaLuchi Coterie member Mosaic by MG.

Bride & Groom-to-be: Shanel & Edson
Occupations: Denim Specialist & Quality Insurance Engineer
Location of Engagement Shoot: Jack Rose, New Orleans

How did we meet? Edson and Shanel met at Southeastern Louisiana University in 2009. Edson spotted Shanel as she was going to her dorm room and thought to himself, that this was his chance to actually speak to her, as he had previously seen her and did not speak to her before. It was drizzling and at the time Shanel was not interested in getting to know him but was more worried about her permed hair getting frizzy. Edson did not give up, so after Shanel declined his offer to get to know him, he searched for Shanel on Facebook and she accepted to be his friend. While Shanel was still a little skeptical about Edson’s intentions she broke out of her shell a little. While texting turned into hanging out around campus, to going on dates and people around campus thought they were actually a couple, they found themselves really liking each other. On November 22, 2010, the day before Shanel’s birthday, after a date night at a Chili’s restaurant, Edson asked Shanel to be his girlfriend. This happened only because she literally cried thinking that this was the day he was going to ask her to be his girlfriend. To make matters worse, on the ride back to campus Shanel burst out in more tears and said this is over because she felt that he would never make it official with her. Edson sits there in complete shock and silence, and Shanel yells “say something,” Edson pauses and says with a deep breathe, “you just have to mess things up don’t you.” Shanel looks at him with confusion and he tells her “I was going to ask you tomorrow on your actual birthday, I had a card and planned to give you roses.” All Shanel could do was literally look down and laugh. So much for a romantic story of how Edson and Shanel made it official huh. But ever since then Shanel and Edson have been inseparable and they thank God for blessing them to become one on June 8, 2019.

Tell us about the proposal. For Edson’s 28th birthday on February 10th, Edson really wanted to go back to his home country, Haiti, so we made plans for an amazing trip. We booked our stay at the Decameron Resort. We were both super excited because we would celebrate his birthday and have a nice Valentines day dinner. A week before our trip I got extremely sick and tried my best to get better before the trip. I recovered 90% right before the trip but still wasn’t at 100% to really do anything the first full day. This gave Edson a ton of time to figure out how exactly he would pop the big question. As I laid in the bed sleep, Edson was on a mission to plan this out. As Edson walked out of the room he saw a photographer taking pictures of a woman, who actually turned out to be his wife. He talked to them a while and asked the guy could he actually capture the moments he proposes, he kindly agreed and things started to fall in line. He then went to the front desk to see what kind of romantic dinners they provided at the resort and he chose the dinner on the beach. Being that we were technically traveling back to the U.S on Valentine’s day, we both decided we could do a nice dinner our last night at the resort, so that made things less obvious when we went to our dinner on the beach. The food and everything were amazing, we had a 4-course meal with our own personal server standing next to use to pour our wine and what I thought a photographer as part of the package. As we got done with our food a group of people came up to the table and had papers turned around where you couldn’t see what was written on them. One at a time they flipped over the papers and it proceeded to say “Will You Marry Me”. Tears began to flow from the both of us and he got down on one knee and read a heartfelt speech and asked me to be his wife, and of course, I said yes. It was everything a girl could ask for and more, just us.

Describe your engagement session. For our engagement session, we wanted something that wasn’t the traditional long formal dresses with the suit and tie we wanted something different. Something artistic, something that we could hang in our house and wouldn’t just be a picture on the wall but a piece of art. We thought long and hard and decided we wanted to do inside photos. Being that we both appreciate art, Edson found the Ashley Longshore gallery on Instagram and I fell in love with it. Being that it’s an actual gallery we could not do our pictures in the gallery, so my best friend suggested the Jack Rose restaurant. They have the signature Lil Wayne picture done by Ashley longshore along with other amazing art plastered along this giant wall. The restaurant is very eclectic with every room in the restaurant having its own style but all still cohesive. We took advantage of every room and it was the best photoshoot we could ask for.

What did you do on your first date? Being that we met in college and money was definitely something we both really did not have, so we went to Chili’s and enjoyed the 2 for $20 special. We also went to watch a movie.

What’s your favorite thing to do as a couple? We love to go to the movies. Tuesdays are usually our date nights to go out to eat, nothing super fancy and watch our $5 movies at the AMC theater.

How has wedding planning been so far? Planning the wedding has been smooth. My decorator, VAR EVENTS, has been a lot of help and being that I, Shanel, am a big organizer and love to plan out things, it was easy to stay on top of things and set deadlines for things. The only thing that we have had issues with is the guest list. The big problem of being over the amount we initially said, but it will all work out.

Tell us what you’re looking forward to most on the wedding day? Of course, we are ready to make it official to become Mr. and Mrs. Pierre, but we are mostly looking forward to celebrating our big day with our family and friends and having one big party to celebrate our union.