Aloha!
How many of you knew when and where your boyfriend/girlfriend was going to ask you to marry them? From my personal experience, I had no idea!! So as Eve from Boston!
Eve first contacted me in the middle of November, and told me that she will be visiting Oahu for the first time with her boyfriend. She wanted to have a photo session during their vacation, because Hawaii is their dream destination for vacation and wanted to capture the memory with amazing nature here. We have been talking about what kind of places she would like to use for the shoot, and we agreed on mountain and the sea.
About 2 weeks before our shooting day, a guy named Allen contacted me and introduced me that he is Eve’s boyfriend. He told me that he is thinking to ask her to marry him during the session, and needed help. I always feel very excited to be asked to shoot the special moment. I asked what his game plan is, and he said “maybe you can suggest us to pretend a marriage proposal in front of the camera” LOL!! After our discussion, we agreed on that I will give him a cue, and then he can make his move :)
On the day of the surprise proposal day, I picked them up from the hotel and met them for the first time. Very smily, friendly, chatty, full of energy kind of couple :) Eve said she had been looking forward to this shoot and she seemed very pumped up already. Little did she know, Allen had a ring on his pocket the whole time…
The first location was at the mountain. Since Allen wanted to execute his plan in the middle of the session, we started to shoot normal couple photos on the road. They were giggly and happy, and the first part went very well. I suggested to drive to the lake, and take some more photos by the lake with the mountain on the background. January being in the rainy season, it had been raining a lot before the shoot. Some part of the path were wet, muddy and smooshy. We kept going anyway for the majestic view! Luckily we found a spot where was dry so his pants don’t get dirty when he goes on a knee.
I asked them to enjoy the moment and just be natural at first. Eve seemed to like the view so much and she looked very content with the vast nature in east Oahu. In the meantime, Allen looked a bit nervous to my eyes. The time has come. I gave him a cue word, then he kneeled down right away and popped the question to her. At first she looked confused or surprised, then she realized what was happening to her. It was very nice to capture how she reacted to his big question with BIG smile on his face. SHE SAID YES!!! Her eyes teared up, and she was so surprised that I knew his plan the whole time :D
Lots of things came to make sense to her - why her sister recommended her to have a softer warmer color nail polish rather than a bright blue colors for the vacation, why we were checking if the ground was dry enough, why Allen was acting a bit off right before he asked his question… Our car ride to the second location was lots of findings from Allen, and sharing the news to friends and families :) We finished off our shoot on a beach, celebrated their new chapter with the crystal clear water in Waikiki!
It’s always amazing to be there to capture the special moments like this, and be the part of the moment. Allen did a good job to find out my contact information through conversation with Eve. He said, Eve helped him plan his proposal unknowingly, and it was very helpful for him ;) Congratulations Eve & Allen!!
