top of page
Search

Hazel & Mike’s Delayed Engagement Session in Marquette, Michigan

Writer: The Up North Bride
The Up North Bride
2 days ago
5 min read

Updated: 5 hours ago

Photographed by Emmoon Creative


Sometimes plans don't go quite as expected. For Hazel and Mike Cortright, their engagement session was delayed by a very unfortunate encounter with a porcupine, but a year later, they finally got the Marquette photos they'd been hoping for.


And by then, they had already gotten married.



From a Bike Shop DM to Forever


Buckle up! At the time they met, Hazel was living in Charlotte, North Carolina, working for NASCAR and had a part-time job with Trek Bike Company. Mike was living in Northern Michigan and owned North Country Cycle, a Trek bike shop.


After five years in North Carolina, Hazel was ready to move back to Michigan and wanted to get Up North and away from city life. She started looking at bike shops where she could transfer her experience to somewhere new.


And that's where a little Instagram "light viewing" came into play.

"I did some "light viewing" on Instagram to find Mike was the owner of NCC and sent him a DM asking if they were hiring for seasonal or full time."

Mike initially thought the message was spam and ignored it. But later that week, he reconsidered.

"Mike thought the message was spam at first and didn't give it any attention, but later that week he thought, what if it's real? So he looked at it again, and messaged me back."

After a few exchanges, Hazel explained that she'd be visiting family in Michigan later that year and planned to stop by to meet Mike and talk about the potential job.



There was just one small detail: Hazel had no idea what Mike looked like or what his personality was like.


So she invited him on a mountain bike ride, partly as an informal interview to see if they could actually work together, and partly to prove that she really could ride a mountain bike.


About halfway through that first ride, the conversation went from interview questions to flirting. They ended up riding together three days in a row.


On the fourth day, after a short ride, they decided to hang out at Mike's house and let their dogs meet and play.


They ended up sitting at the kitchen counter until nearly 4 a.m. Eventually, Mike convinced Hazel to stay the night rather than drive home with all the deer out at night.



From Michigan to North Carolina and Back Again


A few days later, Hazel returned to North Carolina, but the two kept talking every day. Phone calls, texts, and plenty of photos of their dogs.


Then, a week or two later, Mike decided to fly down to North Carolina to visit Hazel, get some mountain biking in, and see how well they actually did spending a full week together.


He even had a backup plan.

"Don't worry, Mike had a backup plan that if it got weird, he'd crash at a hotel."

Thankfully, it didn't get weird. The two got along so well that the week flew by, and soon Mike was back on a plane to Michigan.


Then, on December 12, Hazel packed up the rest of her belongings, loaded up her dog, and drove 14 hours to Northern Michigan to start a new chapter.


She's been there ever since.


It wasn't until June 2022 that Mike took Hazel to Marquette for the first time and showed her around. She quickly fell in love with the city, and Marquette has remained a special place for the couple ever since.


Today, they enjoy mountain biking, hiking with their dogs, trips to Marquette, ice cream, and all kinds of adventures together.



A Marquette Engagement Session a Year Late


Their engagement photos didn't exactly happen according to plan.


In June 2025, Hazel and Mike were supposed to head to Marquette for a bike weekend and an engagement session. But just two days before their trip, one of their dogs, Bennett, had an unfortunate encounter with a dead porcupine.


Hazel explains:

"All the sudden we see quills sticking out all over him and panic. We pulled as many out as we could and we ended up at the vet for emergency surgery for quills that had pushed themselves into the skin."

After surgery, Bennett came home with a shaved section of his neck, stitches, and a tube, and their Marquette trip had to be canceled.

So, a year later, Hazel and Mike decided it was finally time to redeem themselves.


CENSORED FOR OUCHIES
CENSORED FOR OUCHIES

This time, they decided to have some fun with it.


Their session with Emmoon Creative started at the Marquette Courthouse, continued to the Red Lighthouse, and ended at one of their favorite places in town: Frosty Treats.

"We LOVE ice cream, we even had it as our dessert at our Marquette wedding. So naturally, getting photos of us at Frosty Treats felt like the perfect way to end our photo session."

Honestly, we can't think of a more fitting way to wrap up an engagement session.



The Proposal


Mike's proposal had its own little element of surprise.


Just like Mike had traveled to North Carolina to visit Hazel back in November 2021, he returned to North Carolina in January 2025, this time with a ring and a plan.


Hazel was visiting friends and had no idea what was coming. Mike had secretly been working with Hazel's best friend, who lives in North Carolina, to plan the proposal.


One day, Hazel went to lunch with some girlfriends. As they were leaving, one of the girls said she'd forgotten her phone and needed to go back inside. Then she suggested they step outside to take a photo.


That's when Hazel saw Mike.

"Before I knew it, I saw Mike and was so shocked at what was happening."

Mike greeted her with a big hug before getting down on one knee.


Thankfully, one of Hazel's friends captured the moment on video. Hazel was so shocked that she doesn't remember the entire thing.


But she does know one thing:

"I know I said yes."

Mike stayed in North Carolina for another day to celebrate with Hazel, and the two even stopped at Dick's Sporting Goods to get Mike a silicone ring so he could have a ring, too.



The Ring


Mike proposed with a simple white gold band, knowing Hazel wanted the two of them to choose her actual engagement ring together.


But funny enough, the original ring from the proposal in North Carolina is still the one Hazel wears the most.



A Marquette Wedding


By the time their delayed engagement session finally happened in June 2026, Hazel and Mike were already married.


The couple tied the knot on September 13, 2025, in Marquette, Michigan, the same place that had become such an important part of their story.


From a job inquiry on Instagram to mountain bike rides, a 14-hour move, an unexpected proposal in North Carolina, a porcupine-related engagement-session cancellation, and finally ice cream at Frosty Treats, Hazel and Mike's story is full of the kind of little details that make a love story feel like theirs.

And we're pretty glad that Instagram DM didn't end up in Mike's spam folder.


Credits:

Comments

bottom of page