Snow White and Prince Ali

I had an appointment to take Halloween pictures with my niece on October 8th, 2004. For months she had been telling everyone she was going to dress up like Tinker Bell for Halloween and her “zizi” (me) was going to be Snow White. Well, as I wandered out for my Snow White costume I called my fiancé. I let him know that since I was going to be Snow White for the picture, I was also going to use the costume if we did something for Halloween and that he would need to come up with some kind of Prince costume.

Picture day arrived. Sears was running 1 hour behind schedule and my sister was ready to cancel. However, our usual photographer came to reassure us that it would not be that long. I had called my fiancé to tell him about our day so far. When it was our turn in the studio, the photographer started snapping pictures of both my nieces. She then began taking pictures of Tinker Bell and Snow White. Unexpectedly the photographer says “Now let’s get some pictures of Snow White by herself.” At 27, I was stunned and quickly declined. The photographer then pulled my sister out of the studio wanting to show her a prop and they both left the room. When they returned, they both started saying to me “Lay down and pretend that it’s last scene of Snow White where she eats the poison apple.” I was so confused and then admitted that I have never seen the actual movie Snow White. Just then my fiancé appeared out of nowhere, dressed as Prince Ali from Aladdin.

I was so surprised and excited at the same time! He looked amazing and as he was approaching me, the photographer kept snapping pictures. He knelt down beside me, gave me a big hug and kiss, and said to me “You started the fairy tale, now let me finish it. Will you marry me?” I was almost speechless, as this was my fairytale come true. Of course I said yes, we couldn’t stop hugging and kissing. My niece who loves being dressed up in costumes was so excited with an ear to ear grin saying; “zizi and Mike are getting married”. It just so happened that the studio was in on the entire event as everyone started to come in to congratulate us.

My fiancé took both of our families out to dinner that night and showed them all 20 8x10 photos of our big day. We have set a date for November 12, 2005.

Paola Orlando