Boston Marathon Proposal :: Bonnie + Josh

I feel like a little squirrel waking up from hibernation. Actually, I don't think squirrels hibernate, maybe they just sleep a lot, so we have that in common. What I'm trying to say is that wedding season is upon us and I'll be blogging again. Are you excited? You should be, there's some really good stuff on the way....

About a week or so before the Boston Marathon, I received a call from Josh who was planning to surprise his girlfriend Bonnie by proposing after she crossed the finish line. Proposals are one of my very favorite things to photograph so of course, I agreed to be there.

Bonnie and Josh live in Austin, TX and Bonnie had hoped that Josh would be able to travel to Boston with her. Josh came up with an elaborate story of food poisoning (his mom and sister were in on the plan and were bolstering the story with posts about Gatorade on his facebook page). So Bonnie was running along thinking she'd just meet up with her running club friends after the race.

Josh had actually flown into Boston the night before and as Bonnie finished, she made her way to the meeting area. And then she saw Josh. Who was supposed to be sick at home in bed. 

What are you doing here?!?!?

Hugs and congratulations. 

And then the big question:

Bonnie said yes!


Bonnie still had no idea I was there, so I just kept photographing as Josh explained how he'd planned the whole thing and thoughtfully offered her a little chair he''d brought .with him. Your feet have to hurt after 26.2 miles, right?

While we were waiting for Bonnie to finish, Josh was telling me that the army will be transferring him to a different station soon, and he couldn't stand the idea of leaving without having told Bonnie how he felt and asking her to marry him. When I'm photographing, I'm so in the zone, thinking about exposure and composition and other technical stuff but I swear someone was chopping onions in the vicinity and I had to wipe away a few tears. 

Congratulations Josh and Bonnie! Thank you for choosing me as your Boston Marathon Proposal Photographer!

Engagement Pictures in Christopher Columbus Park in Boston :: Amanda + Danny

Amanda and Danny have been patiently waiting for their engagement pictures as I gadded about in Switzerland trying to track down the site of the Bachelor proposal so I could see if Courtney or Lindzi would be "winning". Alas, I couldn't find a helicopter in time so I had to wait until I was back in the US to watch it on TV with everyone else. I will admit that "after the final rose" I did feel about 7% sorry for Courtney, it must be hard to have so many people love to hate you...

Anyway, back to Amanda and Danny who didn't have to go on a reality show to find love. No, they met whilst they were at the University of Notre Dame, they were both heads of their dorms and were thrown together on a team-building retreat. The first time they set eyes on one another was during a rope tying and climbing exercise. Who'd have thought just a few years later that they'd be tying the knot? Do you see what I did there? Yup..ok...I'll stick to taking pictures and not making up lame jokes :)

Danny proposed to Amanda at Christopher Columbus Park right on the Boston Waterfront so we figured we'd start and end this mini-engagement shoot there:



It was fairly chilly and windy out. I am really dying for spring to arrive...




Although I have a strict no-drinking policy at weddings, I'll break the rules at engagement shoots. So we stopped into the rather awesome bar at the Fairmont Battery Wharf to wait for the sun to go down and for the twinkly lights to come out:


Danny proposed on a cold December day when Christopher Columbus park was all lit up like this. He then surprised Amanda with a dinner attended by both families :)


Thanks to the awesome Shang Chen who came along to hold my light for 10 minutes to get some night time pictures, we even managed to crash another proposal which you can see **here**


Amanda & Danny - thank you for braving the cold and wind. I'm so looking forward to your wedding at the State Room in November!!!

Wedding Proposal Photographer in Boston, MA

On Sunday I had a relaxing afternoon photographing Amanda and Danny's engagement shoot - more on that in a later blog post - we finished up our shoot under the twinkly lights in Christopher Columbus park (where Danny had proposed to Amanda on a chilly December night). As I was photographing them we heard a big commotion in the background - squeals and laughing and excited speaker-phone conversations - we realized there was an actual proposal happening!!!

I had the awesome Shang Chen along with me at the end of the shoot to hold the light so we could get a night time picture - after we finished the shoot we looked at each other and I knew we were both thinking the same thing. We should TOTALLY take the newly engaged couple's picture!!! Almost everytime I meet with a couple, they'll tell me the proposal story and then pull out a blurry cell phone picture...

So we assured the unnamed couple that we weren't creepy photographers just hanging out in the hope of catching proposals and they said they would love to have their picture taken! I gave them my card, told them to email me and we wished them congratulations.

I worried for 24 hours that maybe they somehow lost my card and didn't know how to find me?!?! I had visions of calling up the news stations and running a "Is this you?" campaign to reunite them with the picture. Then I got a happy little email from Meredith & David saying "You took our picture last night!!! We can't wait to see them! Thank you so much for capturing it for us" and they kindly gave me permission to post one on my blog:


Congratulations to Meredith & David! Thank you for letting me take a quick picture just moments after the proposal! Best wishes for your long and happy future together!