Dustin’s surprise wedding proposal to Tyler at the Chihuly Garden

Awhile back I received an email from Dustin.  Dustin lives in North Carolina, and he and his boyfriend Tyler were planning a trip to Seattle in a few weeks.  Dustin wanted to take advantage of the trip to ask Tyler to marry him, and asked if I could help him set up and take photos of the moment of the proposal.

I was instantly on board with the idea; I have done other surprise proposals and while they can be rather challenging to photograph, they are always fun.  So Dustin and I talked about various possibilities for where the proposal would take place.  He and Tyler were planning on staying in downtown Seattle and neither of them had ever been to Seattle before, so finding a location that would be easy for them to both locate and get to was important.  Dustin was interested in doing the proposal on the Space Needle, but I had to point out that due to the way the observation deck of the Needle is set up, it would be next to impossible for me to set up for photos of the proposal without it being really obvious that I was watching them.  So we nixed that idea.

A year or so earlier I had done another surprise proposal, this time at the Chihuly Garden and Seattle Center, right at the base of the Space Needle.  I described this session to Dustin and sent him a link to the blog posting (Yaron and Danielle at the Seattle Center) so he could see what I had dome with Yaron and Danielle for their session.  Dustin was very excited by the blog photos and booked me for his proposal/engagement session.  We discussed where and when they would arrive at the Garden and I gave Dustin a description of me so he’d be able to know where I was before he made his move.

The day of the shoot I arrived at Chihuly about 20 minutes ahead of time and scouted to see how many other people were at the Garden that day, and what areas might work best for the proposal.  I had already thought that the spot where I had done the earlier session was likely again the best choice, and it didn’t take me long to confirm my feelings.  The spot I had chosen is a short path that circles away from the main path through the Garden, and offers a couple of points where there is potentially a small amount of privacy, as the majority of visitors do not explore this particular path.  Dustin and I traded text messages as I described where I wanted him to take Taylor, and I worked to get myself into position where I would be as inconspicuous as possible.  From a photographer’s standpoint, one of the best things about the Garden is that there are always lots of people there with cameras, so I didn’t stick out too much.

After wandering the Garden for a bit Dustin led Taylor into the chosen area.  He turned and dropped to one knee and pulled a ring from his pocket.  Taylor definitely seemed to be surprised, but also very pleased!  Even from a distance it was clear that Taylor’s answer was “Yes!”, as you’ll see when you look at the photos below.

At this point Dustin turned and pointed me out to Taylor and explained what I was doing, and I moved over to meet both men for the first time.  Taylor was obviously very pleased with what Dustin had planned, and we talked over how they would like to spend the rest of their photo session.  They decided that we’d start with more photos in different places in the Garden, and then I could give them a tour of Seattle Center and we’d take photos where ever looked good.

And that’s exactly what we did!  You can now look at the photos below to get a pretty good idea of how we spent our time together.  Dustin and Taylor were an absolute joy to work with, and I’m just sorry that their wedding will take place in North Carolina on a date that I have already booked for another wedding.  Otherwise I’d try to find a way to make the trip and be their wedding photographer!