Erlan’s Surprise Proposal to Tanya at Snoqualmie Falls

Back at the beginning of February I received an email from Erlan.  He and his girlfriend Tanya were going to be visiting Seattle the following week, and he wanted to propose to her while in Seattle. he wanted to do the proposal at Snoqualmie Falls, and asked if I was available to take some photos of the proposal.

We traded a few emails and then had a phone chat to go over Erlan’s ideas for the proposal.  I have done many photo shoots at Snoqualmie Falls, including several surprise proposals, and know the grounds very well.  I told Erlan about what I thought would be the best locations for the proposal and we talked through the timeline.  The wild card would be the weather.  Early February weather in Seattle is notoriously unpredictable but tends towards clouds and rain.  And the weather at the Falls tends to be even wetter.  But we made our plans and crossed our fingers that we’d luck out with decent weather. 

The morning of the proposal Erlan texted me when they were leaving Seattle for the Falls.  I arrived at the Falls at just about the same time they did, and moved into position at the location we had agreed upon, the main observation platform.  The weather was cool and cloudy, but dry.  Thank you, Weather Gods! 

We lucked out that there were only a few other people visiting the Falls that morning.  In the spring as the weather gets better it can be a total zoo, with dozens or even hundreds of people visiting.  There was one other couple on the observation platform when I arrived, but they were just leaving so when Erlan and Tanya arrived a few minutes later we had the space all to ourselves.

I was playing the part of a random photographer taking photos of the Falls.  I had instructed Erlan where he should stand when he proposed to give me the best angle of them with the Falls in the background.  He nailed it, and set up in a perfect spot for me to catch the proposal and Tanya’s reaction.  As you’ll see in the photos below!

After Erlan proposed (and Tanya accepted) I introduced myself and Erlan explained to Tanya why I was there.  Then we spent about an hour taking photos in different places in the Falls park; first in the upper area and then we drove to the base of the falls to get some different looks there.  Tanya and Erlan were wonderful subjects and very nice people, and I enjoyed the session very much.

Here are a selection of photos from our session.  I hope that you like them!  More proposals, engagement and weddings by visiting my blog.