My client M. wanted to surprise his girlfriend with a marriage proposal caught on camera so that he could have that moment of "Yes!" captured forever. He contacted me with a location of a park in Apex NC ( just outside of Raleigh  ) and a plan to accomplish this complete with a map of where the deed would go down. 

I arrived about 40 mins early so that I could scope out the place to be stationed ahead of time and snapped a few photos of the park to pass the time and to make sure that if I was  spotted by his girlfriend she would just assume that I was a nature photographer.

 Now the time had come. First, the girlfriend and her family ( Mother, sister and her sister's husband/ kids) arrived at the park. The sister of the girlfriend was to eventually lead my clients beloved  to a pre set location to "talk" and then my client would appear with a ring and upon bended knee. This worked  flawlessly, my only regret was that they did not execute this plan precisely where he said it would be, thus my crappy vantage point from behind a tree resulted in a less then stellar image of the actual proposal. ( I was expecting them to appear in the open field on my right instead of under the gazebo behind a poorly placed picnic table). At this point I was still supposed to be in hiding so I was unable to move around to gain a cleaner perspective. That being said, I was very pleased with the photographs of her saying "YES!" because they turned around at just the right moment. 

It was so sweet to see my clients fiance's happy amazement and the tears of joy running down her Mothers face. She was even more surprised when he told her that he had hired a professional photographer to cover his proposal. He then pointed to me and I waived back...Love her reaction upon seeing me for the first time!

Still in shock..

Now that the cat was out of the bag it was time to grab a few more candid moments of the happy couple as she showed off her beautiful ring to her Mother.

We also had time to take some fun semi formal engagement portraits. It was great to be there on the exact day of someones life changing moment to photograph a once in a lifetime kind of thing. Their smiles said it all I think :)

Congratulations M & L! Cheers to a long, happy and healthy marriage ahead!

To see the rest of this gallery please visit..http://sallysiko.zenfolio.com/p755936456