A Paris proposal

This is Chris and Leah’s proposal story but it starts out with a little bit about me.

In October 2013, my family and I travelled to Paris, France. This was to be a family vacation, no shoots I promised myself, just family time. I would put the camera away, maybe not even bring one. Okay, that was a bit unreasonable, I packed one camera and off we flew. On our third night I got an email from my friend Melissa. The conversation went something like this, “A-M, do you know any photographers in Paris? I have a friend who will be proposing to his girlfriend and he would like photos of the proposal.” I wrote back, “Seriously? That’s weird. I’m in Paris right now, maybe I could do it.” Melissa:  “No way! Totally weird, it’s Chris, he’s proposing to Leah!” I had met Chris on many occasions so I was pretty excited for him and really excited that I’d get to see it! So Chris emailed me and gave me the scoop. He was hoping to have a photographer take photos of the proposal in front of the Eiffel Tower but without Leah knowing because he wanted to surprise her with a photo of the proposal on their wedding day. Hmmmm…so it was to be a secret, paparazzi-style proposal, AND I had to keep a secret for months and months and months. Was it all doable with my little 50mm lens?

How did it all go down you ask? How did Leah finally find out? On May 31, 2014, their wedding day, Kelly and I delivered a gift to Leah at The Westin where was getting ready. When I walked in she said, “Oh Chris, we agreed no gifts! I know what this is.” I responded, “I don’t think you know what this is…” Leah wasn’t too far off though, she clearly knows her groom very well because her guess was that the gift was a photograph of the Eiffel Tower. Little did she know that she and Chris would both be in it!

I think it was at that point that Leah told everyone in the room that the day Chris proposed she had noticed a photographer nearby taking photos. She had wanted to approach them and ask if they had captured the proposal but when she went to look for them, they were gone (phewf!). When they returned home from their trip, Leah googled Paris proposal in hopes of finding some images posted somewhere of her and Chris but could not. Little did she know what was waiting for her down the road.

Needless to say, I’m glad I brought my camera on that eventful trip and thrilled that Chris’s plan went off without a hitch. Kind of a hard proposal to top guys, wouldn’t you say?