"Let all of my happiness be yours, all of your sadness be mine. Let the whole world be yours, only you be mine!"
Engagement/Proposal is one of my favorite thing to photograph. Because, this is the beginning of a new journey for each couple and its something worth capturing so they can remember in years to come. Meet my next client Derek an Army soldier currently stationed here at Fort Carson and his soon to be fiancé Tomicka. Derek contacted me about 2-weeks prior to his proposal date that he wants to propose to his girlfriend of 7-years and he was thinking of doing it at the Garden of the Gods. Of course, that is a great place to propose and Garden of the Gods is a popular destination for a lot of photographers to take their clients. We kept in contact through messaging leading up to the day of the proposal.
Finally, the day of the proposal arrived and of course, I was nervous. Just to put it out there, as always going into any photoshoot I get nervous. Probably its just me this happens to, but I'm sure it doesn't happened to anybody else. But hey, this is my first engagement/proposal shoot and I was ready to just go out there and give it my best shot. On this day the weather did not agree with our plans, we were suppose to meet at around 6:00pmish so we can catch the sunset, but unfortunately mother nature disagree otherwise. It was pouring rain with the mixture of hail and I followed up with my client to see about our plans but Derek was determined to do this photo shoot today. I got to the park an hour early, me and my husband just sat in the car waiting for all I know the shoot is not canceled and just stick with the plan. It was still pouring rain by 7:00pm and it was getting dark, I checked with Derek and he said the rain should be gone soon and that they are on their way to the park. Finally the rain died down, than me and my husband started walking into the park to recon the area to find the perfect place for the proposal. I finally found the place where he can do his proposal, which require a little bit of a hike.
Even though we were behind schedule and wasn't able to catch the sunset I'm grateful that we were able to capture the proposal before it gets really dark up there and that will not be good. Remember, this is a surprise proposal and she has no idea what was going on. She thought they were just there for a nice nature evening walk around the park, but what she didn't know that he is about to pop the question.
Finally, Derek + Tomicka were able to get up to where I was she don't know who I am yet, I was just posing as a tourist taking pictures of the scenery. I looked at Derek and he gave me the signal that it's about to go down. They took some selfies together and than Derek told Tomicka to face and take a picture of the scenery, not knowing that Derek is already on one knee. When she turned around she was SURPRISE and shocked, I know how happy she is and I can see it all on her face and that was so beautiful. I was able to capture him one knee and her reaction which is priceless. She couldn't stop smiling, kissing and hugging his fiancé. Moments like these are moments worth capturing and I'm glad that I was there to capture it for them. We were then able to get some candid pictures done of them after, but by that time it was dark, but hey I tried my best & I got to say she is smiling so bright. She told me her dimples hurts..LOL of course it should be this occasion is one for the book. Occasions like these gets me emotional I know I shouldn't be but it did.
