Ryan Proposes to Ashley at the Chihuly Glass Garden

Here is another one of the fantastic surprise proposals that I photographed this summer.  As is always almost the case, surprise proposals are put together in a pretty short period of time. Typically I am called 2-4 weeks before the planned proposal, and sometimes only a few days in advance.  I’ve had to turn down several because I was already booked on the date on which the  proposal was planned, and in at least one case the person planning the proposal changed the date so I’d be able to take photos for them!

In this case, I heard from Ryan less than a week before the planned date for the proposal. He and his girlfriend Ashley were going to be flying to Seattle from Florida, and Ryan wanted to surprise Ashley while on their trip.  He already knew where he wanted to do the proposal, the Chihuly Glass Garden at the Seattle Center.  I have done several other proposals there, so I was able to help Ryan plan the timing to make it all work.

This took place in mid-July, so the chances we would have good weather was pretty high, always a consideration when planning an outdoor event in Seattle!  On the down side, it also meant that the Glass Garden would be busy, making the proposal slightly more tricky.

But Ryan was happy to listen to my suggestions about how to make the proposal work, which simplified things a lot.  I sent him a map of the Garde, showing a location where he had a chance of having at least a small amount of privacy for the proposal, a small path off to one side of the garden.

The afternoon of the proposal I arrived early at Chihuly to scope out the locations and the crowd.  Ryan and I kept in contact by text, with him letting me know when he and Ashley had arrived so I could be watching for them.
Everything went about as smoothly as I could wish for.  Ashley and Ryan entered the garden right on schedule, and I was able to follow at a distance and get into position to photograph the proposal.  Ryan did a great job, and Ashley is either a world-class actress or she was completely surprised when Ryan dropped to one knee and showed her the ring.

Once they had a few minutes to hug and talk after the proposal I introduced myself, which further surprised Ashley.  We then spent close to an hour exploring the Garden together while I took photos in various locations.  You’ll see some of these photos below.

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