It’s 4am and Brandon and Megan are on a flight from Ohio to Seattle. “Are you keeping something from me?” she asks, with no idea of what the next 14 hours have in store for her. Little does she know, there is a gorgeous diamond ring in Brandon’s pocket, just burning a hole.

Fast forward to Go Time. It’s 5:45 and I receive a text, “Coming up.” An awesome pal (and fellow photographer) Amy is with me, and we are playing tourist. She’s taking photos on her ipad (yup! Ipad!) and I’m meandering around. Megan’s a smart one, you see…. and we had to be extra careful to blend in with the sightseers. They arrive to the top of Seattle’s iconic space needle and make their way leisurely to the observation deck outside, as they have a few minutes to waste before their 6pm dinner reservations (6pm. Reservations. Rrrrriiiiiight. .

Then it happens. What was said, we’ll never know. All we know is that he asked and she said yes, as smiles were bursting from their cheeks.

Don’t you just love their giddy smiles and sweet grins?!?!?!She’s breathtakingly stunning, and he’s oh-so-handsome. Sorry folks, they’re totally spoken for.Congratulation to the both of you. I hope you have a wonderful trip around Seattle, and Amy and I were so honored to be there for such a special moment for you both!!!!! We wish you many years of laughter and love and fun and adventure!!!! XXOO!

We had a few minutes before their planned dinner reservations at the Space Needle (that was the guise all along, you see!), so we romped around the Seattle Center for a few final images to make their proposal photography complete.

A big ol’ congrats to you both. It was wonderful being nervous with you, pretending with you, squealing with you, recapping with you, and of course, watching it all go down. Cheers to love. And you. And the rain and Space Needle and all of it!!!

Imagine my surprise when Grant emails me just the other day, stating that he was going to officially propose and wanted to have me there to capture it all! They’ve known each other for YEARS, and have known that they were going to get married for a while now, I mean they built a wedding website and everything! The last piece to the puzzle was Brandie’s ring. It arrived from Blue Nile a couple of days before, and little did she know, he was going to lead her on a wild goose chase made of fibs, fake phone calls, and secret texts to go pick up her ring at the Fed Ex office. Alas, there WAS no box at Fed Ex for her, so what is one to do except go spend the sunset at the Space Needle? Random, right? But hey, we all have our random moments. By this time, Brandie was getting a little suspicious, but just a little.

Up in the elevator they went, Grant touching his pocket to make sure the box safe and sound. He waited for just the right moment, as the crowd cleared a tiny bit, giving him enough room to drop to one knee. The crowd went wild, liiterally, with whoops, hollers, clapping, and banging on the windows! The whole needle was a shakin’ with excitement and noise!!!!

After all the hoopla died down, Grant started to explain some of the back story, and we chatted about the moments leading up to the big question. My worst nightmare came true as a surprise proposal photographer- I had been spotted before the proposal! Brandie actually recognized me hiding out on the observation deck since she’d been to my website already!!! She brushed it off as a coincidence or case of mistaken identity until she realized Grant was actually proposing, and then she put two & two together.

They were local celebrities for the next hour as folks recognized them as “the kids who got engaged on top of the Space Needle!“

And then a genius idea hit me like a Mack truck. Barbie doesn’t have a proposal facedown for her website, ILoveFaceDowns.com!!! Brandie and Grant were all too eager to participate!

The EMP/SF Museum, designed by legendary architect Frank Gehry, is so beautifully lit at night.

Congratulations!!!! You two crazy cats are so cute together, and I had sooooo much fun getting to hang out with you on one of the most memorable days of your lives!!!!!!

They adore indie movies. In fact, that’s all they used to do together when they were in college studying economics and marketing.

He flew hours and hours across the globe, in cahoots with his soon-to-be mother in law to plan this day, this moment.

Yesterday was a gorgeous sunny March afternoon, and it was perfect for Anay to ask Ruchi to be his main squeeze, officially.

Congratulations, you two! Anay, I am so so glad that you forgot your camera and had to ask me to come along instead. So so glad!!

Boy did Joey have Lauren fooled. He had her convinced that he “wasn’t the marrying type.”  In fact, just the other day when he had called her parents to ask for their blessings, Lauren’s mom confessed that Lauren had confided, ” Mom, I’ve graduated college and now I have a Big Girl Job. What more do I have to do to get him to marry me?”

That was precisely when he knew his timing was right for a surprise proposal on their Christmas vacation to Seattle.

Joey calls me for a little help, and at just the right moment, off Lily and I went with 4 dozen rose petals to one of Seattle’s most iconic locations: Post Alley in Pike’s Place Market. It was one of the wettest days of the month, no doubt!

Among raindrops and fellow vacationers, down on one knee he went.  And the rest is history. This is definitely ONE New Year’s Eve to remember!

Congratulations, you two! Lily and I are so glad to have been there for such a great moment in your lives and love telling your story!

Available in sets of 3, they are perfect for little photography gifts to grandparents or bridesmaids, or just for carrying in your purse! I’m a stickler for good print quality, and have finally found the best!! These come in a few different paper choices, as well as leatherettes (like this mod red one!) and canvases.

This one I had printed up as a surprise for Nick and Danni (it’s of their actual marriage proposal we photographed last month!), and kept one for a studio sample (and a fun memory, of course! What a GREAT day!!).

I rarely do promotions over here, but I thought it would be fun to include 6 of these for each wedding package booked in January just for giggles. So there ya’ go: now you can’t say I never gave ya’ anything

Me: “Hello?”

Voice: “Hey Laurel, this is Aaron. Alyssa and I are shooting a wedding, and I can’t get the Pocket Wizards we borrowed from you to work. Also, I bought a ring today and I’m going to ask Alyssa to marry me tonight over a late dessert. Should someone be there to take pictures? What are you doing tonight?” Wait, what? Did you just ask me a technical question and a romantic question in the same breath?! What?! WHAT?!

At this point, I may have squealed a little.  I probably jumped up and down a lot.  Alyssa is one of my good, good friends. She’s a photographer with a successful studio over on the other side of the lake, and makes AWESOME pet portraits to boot. I couldn’t wait. I felt like an expectant father waiting outside the delivery room (or what I THINK one could feel like . I was paralyzed with excitement, and for 2 hours I watched the clock while sitting in a bony chair (Remember, just moved. No couch yet). Literally. Watched. The Clock.

After a string of sneaky texts and covert voicemails, we had our plan. He was SO excited, talking a mile a minute, saying the cutest things (faster than usual, and this boy talks FAST! I saved the messages for you, Alyssa!!). So… when the time came, I parked outside Tangletown’s lil gem of a wine bar, Eva, Twittering hints and teasers of what was about to happen.

Then it came. The text that said “1 minute warning.” I jumped out of my car so fast, I barely noticed it was pouring rain.  The plan was that I’d have to shoot through the window- if Alyssa were to see me, it would all be over- she’d either know something was up or invite me over for dessert. SO, here I was, 10pm, by myself, in the rain, shooting like a Peeping Tom through the fence AND a window. Creepy- that’s my middle name these days .

And then the ring came out on the table. And lots of sweet looks and smooches. After a few minutes, I began to wonder if Aaron even remembered I was outside with all the excitement of the hearing the word he’d been waiting to hear for months (YES!). As one last surpise, he pointed out his personal Peeping Tom, and Alyssa flipped when she realized I was outside the whole time!!

Congrats you guys. I am so excited you found each other, and even more excited that I could be there to document such a wonderful memory for the two of you. Seems I may have found the favorite part of my job… proposal photography .

p.s. Alyssa… I’m watching Craig Ferguson while typing this. And he just said “OOHlala!”