I get an email from a friend of a client who’s a friend of a guy who’s about to propose to his girlfriend and then pull the whole wedding planning this off on his own…two days later. Its the kind of email where you think, “This is a scam…or…this guys is CRAZY!”
Fortunately for us it was all real. Jeremy is the greatest wedding planning man in the world. No question.
So let’s talk about the engagement first.
I hadn’t met Jeremy and all of our communication was on the phone or by email. The only concrete plans to photograph the proposal were, “meet us in Point Pleasant Park on Sunday morning at 11am.” So Steph buried herself in the tall grass hoping she was in the right place…and waited.
I sat around the gazebo w Eegn, waiting for a guy in a hoodie and a girl w a camera around her neck. We waited…and waited and waited. Then, eegn took off as he often does…and he almost screwed everything up. I was in the perfect location as ‘guy in park w camera’. As I chased after eegn I saw the guy in the hoodie. Now I’ve never been CIA or FBI or undercover anything but the acknowledging, yet subtle nod that Jeremy and I gave each other was the biggest rush of my life. This guy’s about to propose, Julia has no idea and we get to photograph it! I hoped she said yes!
So Im holding eegn from taking off and all of a sudden, Jeremy is down on one knee and I’m 25 feet away. click. click. click. look away. act casual. don’t panic, she’s not watching you. click. click. click. At this point I had let eegn go and had no idea where Steph was either. What a huge rush.
So Julia’s got a camera around her neck and she hands it over to a stranger passing by to take a photo and as luck would have it, she asked a lady who clearly had never used a camera before. Enter ‘guy in park with camera’. “Can I help?” I ask them. “YES, we just got engaged can you take our picture” said Julia. Hahahaha…this is just brilliant. In all the excitement she neglected to ask my name or how she could get the images from us.
And just like that we were gone.
So she said yes on Sunday and on Monday Julia found out they were getting married on Tuesday. Luckily, Christa (Felicity Bridal) was in on the planning and had a few dresses set aside for Julia and had arranged for the alterations to be done the same day. We showed up 15 minutes into the appointment and the dress was already being zipped into the bag. An incredible effort from a bridal shop in the middle of wedding season!
I wish i could tell you about every little detail but I could go on forever. The tape on the ring because it was just a bit too big, the DeWalt sound system, the cake that City Girls had all ready for them (Shauna was also in on the plan) and the amazing group of 4 friends who gathered for the wedding.
For once, I’m kind of at a loss for words. Kind of. This was just an incredible thing to be a part of. We’ll never forget it.
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4 Comments
Liam! Amazing story, in reality, your words, and the incredible photos. BEAUTIFULLY done. Kick-ass work.
These wedding photos are so beautiful they made me cry!
They are like reaching out and touching these people and their joy.
And I too have a 4 year old in preschool and I so get what you said about them running out with their art project. He never asks if they are good… he knows each one is perfect!
: )
Beautiful images. I love the radio prop. the colours are lovely and I like the variation of the post processing. Gorgeous.
Ronan
