Are you thinking of proposing soon? Here’s a look at what planning a Surprise Proposal Photo Session with me as your photographer will look like.

Initial Consultation With Your Photographer

After you fill out and submit a contact form through my website, we will schedule a phone call for our initial consolation. During this call I will ask you some questions to help me better understand what you are wanting from your session and how to customize it for you. I take notes and start the brainstorming as I listen to your answers. Here’s some of the questions I might ask you:

What did you have in mind for the proposal?
What is your love story/how did you meet?
What are some things you enjoy doing together or what does a perfect day with them look like?
Have you talked about marriage/are you both on the same page?
Do you want privacy or for everyone including strangers to witness this moment?
Are you wanting your partner to know about the session?
Will they also be excited to take professional photos?
What do you plan to do with the images?
How do you want to look at these images 10 years from now, or 25 years from now?
Would you like to do a day of In Person Planning at the proposal location?

Once I hear your answers, we can now start to fine tuning and personalizing how you will pop the question and how I will capture the moment in the most efficient way.

How To Keep It A Surprise

So how do we get beautiful photos of you getting down on one knee without your partner suspecting anything?! There’s so many possibilities but let’s talk about this adorable couple, Francisco & Mariam for example.

Francisco wanted Mariam to know about the session without her getting suspicious. She knew Francisco would propose but didn’t know when or where! Francisco came up with an idea to throw her off by getting one of her single friends to “gift” Mariam a couples session voucher she could not use because she did not have a partner to use it with.

So I drew up a mock raffle ticket then had her friend send it to her and just like that Mariam confirmed her gifted session and we started talking details. This allowed Mariam to choose their outfits and details of their session. The plan worked!

In Person Planning

This is something like a rehearsal for everyone to make sure we are where we’re suppose to be at the right time, especially when your partner doesn’t even know about a photographer. We can meet in person (or via video call) at the spot days before the session and rehearse the way you want your proposal to go. We will even come up with the cue for when you need to get down on one knee. After this everyone will be perfectly prepared.

This is also a perfect time to check out a plan B or even C incase of anything occurring that is out of our control.

Best thing is even our smallest proposal photo package includes an in person planning session.

Session Details

I am happy to give you as little or as much advise that you still need help with when it comes to details. Here’s what Francisco and I came up with after our initial consultation and in person planning.

Location - I will suggest a few different locations for you to choose from if you have nothing in mind already. If needed, I will got scout new locations or just double check on the location you chose to make sure it is available. I look up the locations rules and fees so we know what we are getting into. Francisco chose Brazos Bend State Park as the location for his “big trees” and “more privacy” request.
Color Palette - My number one suggestion when DIY’ing a set up will be to pick a color palette because having this will guide you better during decor outfits and more. You can often go to Pinterest and search for color palettes. We decided on a mango color palette for his “colorful fruit picnic” request.
Date and Time - The kindest lighting for an outdoor session will be at golden hour which is one hour before sunset or after sunrise. We chose evening and a little more than an hour before sunset because of all the trees at this park.
Back Up Date - things don’t always go as planned so I do like to have a back up date and location incase of bad weather, closures, or anything that might come up especially for outdoor locations. A tropical storm had hit around the time Francisco proposed as well as Covid restrictions at state parks so we planned for those just incase with both backup date and location.

Bonus Tip - Hire an event rental company to do any type of set up instead of doing it all yourself or having to find a family or friend to do it for you. From past experiences, it will be less stressful and much more reliable to outsource that job. I have a few trusted vendors I can put you in touch with if this is something you are interested in.

I recommend starting this adventure about a month before your desired date to give time for all the planning but some have done it in two weeks or less. It will all depend on what you have in mind.

Inquire about your proposal to get the planning started!

Inquiry Contact Form