Surprise proposal and engagement session at Snoqualmie Falls

A couple of weeks ago I was contacted by Andrew.  He and his girlfriend Julia were coming from Sacramento to Seattle for a short vacation, and he planned to propose to her while they were here.  He wanted to do a surprise  proposal at Snoqualmie Falls, and was interested in seeing if I could capture the moment.  But to complicate matters somewhat neither he or Julia and ever been to Seattle or Snoqualmie Falls, and he had no idea whether it would be possible to do the proposal there, and if so how to make it work so Julia would not suspect what Andrew was planning.

As it happens, I know Snoqualmie Falls very well.  Not only have I photographed dozens of wedding, engagement sessions and high-school senior photo sessions here, when I was in college I spent several summers working for Puget Power at Snoqualmie Falls, where we built the first “tourist trail” to make it easier for people to hike in to the base of the Falls.  I told Andrew that it would be a great place for his proposal plans, and that I would be able to help him find a good spot for the actual proposal.

It just happened that the day of the proposal was the warmest day that we had had this year in Seattle, and because it was a Saturday I knew that there would be LOTS of visitors to the Falls, meaning that doing the proposal in one of the nice lookouts over the Falls would mean a complete lack of privacy, and a large number of oblivious photo-bombers that would ruin the photos.  So I suggested a grassy area that is used for picnics during the summer, but that I hoped would have few if any people to interfere with the proposal.

Andrew and I agreed that we would stay in touch by text as he and Julia were driving to the Falls, and that we would meet up in one of the restrooms once they arrived so I could tell Andrew exactly where he should take Julia for the proposal. Andrew and I met in the restroom as planned, and after explaining where he needed to take Julia so I could get photos of the proposal I headed back to get into position.  But now things started to get really interesting.  As I feared, there were a ton of people at the Falls that day and while the grass area I had decided on was mostly not being used, just before Andrew and Julia got there a family with some young kids moved into place exactly where the proposal was supposed to happen, and started to have some snacks.  LOL, talk about bad timing!

So Andrew and Julia walked past the “proposal spot” and moved toward another part of the park.  Julia spotted a sign that pointed to a trail to the base of the Falls, and thought that would be a fun hike.  When Andrew texted me what she wanted to do I told him that it was a much longer hike than she thought, and that he needed to get her back to the planned location for the proposal.  The family was still there, but I had located another place very close to it that would work just as well.

But now Julia was trapped on a phone call for her job in Sacramento!  She knew nothing of what Andrew was trying to do, and he didn’t want to push her to end the call and have her get suspicious.  So they walked while she talked on the phone, and he got both of them back to near the place they needed to be.  I was watching from nearby as Julia continued her phone conversation, hoping that she would finish before some other people moved into the planned location and made the photo impossible again.

The “wedding gods” finally decided to have mercy on us; Julia ended her phone call and Andrew led her to the place I had described to him.  I was set up about 100 ft away with a big zoom lens, pretending to take photos of some flowers.  Julia was oblivious to me, especially when Andrew pulled a box from his backpack and dropped to one knee.  I got good shots of the entire proposal, as you’ll see when you look at the photos below.   Julia was definitely surprised, but also gave Andrew a big “Yes!” when he popped the question.

I then moved over and introduced myself to Julia, and Andrew explained why I was there.  Julia could not stop laughing at how she had spent 20 minutes on the phone while Andrew was trying to get her to the right place for his proposal.  It was a good thing she was preoccupied with her call, or she would have wondered why Andrew kept getting and sending texts.

We spent the next couple of hours first exploring the park area at the top of the Falls, and I then showed them the way to drive to a parking lot near the base of the Falls so we could get some photos from a different perspective.  I had a great time introducing the couple to the beauty of the Falls and surrounding area, and we got a lot of great photos to help them to remember the day.  Which you can now see below!