Couple’s graduation photos turn into surprise proposal

When Cassi Carter booked a graduation photo session, she had no idea she was helping her boyfriend Lucas Hackleman plan their engagement.

Carter, a business management major, and Hackleman, a history major, met in the fall of 2016 during their freshman year at ETSU. The two had mutual friends from their Preview weekend and quickly became “best friends” within their social group.

“I was really thankful that we were able to have that foundation of being best friends first,” he said. “I just feel like that was really important for our relationship. … I think that’s why we’ve done better than a lot of couples, honestly, because they aren’t friends. They’ll be romantic and stuff, but that’s all. They don’t know how to talk to each other.”

At the time, Carter had a boyfriend, and Hackleman said he respected that and did not make a move until she was single, which was soon after they had met.

The two began hanging out and going on dates in early September. Carter said Hackleman actually introduced himself as her boyfriend first before they had even defined the relationship.

“We were dropping someone off at Governors [Hall], and one of my friends from high school was walking by,” Hackleman said. “So I said hi to him, and he came over to the car to talk to us, and Lucas goes, ‘Hi. I’m Lucas. I’m the boyfriend.’ I was like, ‘What?’”

Hackleman admits he felt threatened in the moment since the two had only been on a few dates.

“This was a handsome guy, okay,” he said, laughing. “This was a handsome guy, and she got excited.”

“So he didn’t even ask me to be his girlfriend first,” Carter said. “He just introduced himself as my boyfriend, and later that night –”

“Later that night we clarified that,” Hackleman said.

That was Oct. 6, 2016. Now the two are about to graduate together from ETSU.

Hackleman said he started planning their proposal in November 2019. He asked her parents for permission in January this year and ordered custom rings. He originally thought about proposing at their first date spot – White Rock overlook on Buffalo Mountain – but ultimately decided to take the opportunity of the photoshoot Carter already had planned.

The photographer, Amberli Clinebell, is one of Carter’s friends and had offered to take the their photos for free earlier in the semester to practice couple photography. However, they never took her up on the offer because they were busy with school work. Once classes moved online due to the coronavirus outbreak, Carter contacted Clinebell to see if they could take her up on the offer and also get graduation photographs.

Hackleman then contacted Clinebell to start planning for the surprise proposal.

“I felt so excited to be a part of the surprise for Cassi,” Hackleman said. “Both Lucas and I were very nervous leading up to the proposal but also very excited. The planning went great, and the pictures turned out amazing.”

He also contacted his mom and sister for considerations about the proposal in addition to Clinebell because he wanted it to be special for Carter. One suggestion he received was to make sure Carter had her nails done for the big day, but all the salons were closed due to the coronavirus outbreak. He had Clinebell talk to Carter and suggest she paint her own nails before the shoot.

On the day of the photoshoot, April 17, Carter, Hackleman and Clinebell had already taken photos at the William B. Green Jr. football stadium and the Quad and walked over to the ETSU Foundation Carillon. Hackleman had planned with the photographer to get candid photos at the bell tower at this point, and he would eventually ask Carter to marry him there.

While Carter was taking graduation photos alone under the bell tower, Hackleman grabbed the ring box to get ready for the big moment.

He planned and practiced what he was going to say in the days leading up to the proposal, and he said the last line of his speech was very specific to their current circumstances.

“Everything in life right now is being put on hold, obviously,” Hackleman said. “But to me, you know, not everything can be put on hold. We still have to graduate. We still have to get jobs. And I still plan on spending the rest of my life with her. Now some of these things can’t be put on hold, and so that was my last line – ‘Some things in life can’t be put on hold.’”

Then he got down on one knee and asked Carter if she would marry him.

Carter said she was completely surprised when he proposed because she had planned the whole shoot – or so she thought.

“That kind of made it more of a surprise because I thought I knew everything that was going to happen, but I didn’t at all,” she said.

Carter believes practicing social distancing made the day even more of a surprise despite so many of their friends and family knowing Hackleman planned to propose.

“It’s a lot easier for people to keep secrets when they don’t see you every day,” she said.

Although she was surprised, she said she knew they would be getting engaged because they had been talking about it for a while.

Carter also said she had a dream the Saturday before the couple’s engagement, and in the dream Hackleman had proposed at Founders Park while taking their graduation photos. She brushed it off, but said she had a similar situation one month earlier. In Carter’s earlier dream, her sister was pregnant, and shortly after her sister announced she was expecting.

Carter said she brushed the engagement dream off as something she was simply wanting to happen, but it encouraged her to go to Walmart and find stick-on nails for the photos just in case he proposed.

After the proposal, the couple said the hardest part is not being able to celebrate with their loved ones.

“It was a perfect engagement, but it sucks that we can’t go celebrate with people,” Carter said. “We can’t go out to dinner with our families. We can’t see our friends and celebrate with them. Instead of going out and seeing people, we’ve just had to FaceTime everyone or call them. I’m very happy with the way it happened, but I do wish we could do a little more to celebrate.”

Despite all of the challenges coronavirus has presented, Carter and Hackleman are happy to be engaged and are looking forward to their future together. They are beginning to plan for a tentative September 2021 wedding in Johnson City or Jonesborough, Tennessee.

“I really, really, really wanted to do this, and I’ve wanted to do this for a long time,” he said. “And I know she wanted this, too.”

“True,” she said. “We’re excited. I’m excited to start this new chapter. We’re graduating; starting our real, adult lives; getting married. We’re growing up very fast.”