A San Francisco Surprise Proposal Story
Did you know that you could hire a surprise proposal planner? Asking somebody to marry you is scary enough, so we make it easier for you to put your best foot forward. From a simple setup to luxurious picnics, we create spaces that will set the stage for romance. With our entire lives shared on social media, there's extra pressure to create a proposal experience that will be sweet, heartwarming and that they'll be proud to share with friends and family online. There are many ways to propose. While some are super casual and spur of the moment, based on the overwhelming urge to blurt out "Will you marry me?", others are more akin to a movie script in their attention to detail with moment by moment sequences and steps already mapped out in advance. And for those folks, there's the Proposal Planner.
When clients first reach out to me to let me know that they're hoping to get engaged, they often have the whole thing figured out. If they do, then it's my job to make their proposal vision a reality. More likely than not they have no clue what they want and are looking to me to make suggestions based on their budget, what they think their soon-to-be fiance would find meaningful, and the elusive "wow" factor! We specialize in that.
Naveen contacted me and was somewhere in the middle of those two groups. We talked about his budget, my packages, and what kind of special add-ons I was offering to customize the experience. I also asked him if he had any special requests that I could fulfill for him. He sure did! For one thing, he wasn't interested in photography, he wanted an elaborate proposal video. We also offer inclusive wedding packages so I already had a videographer in place for him. He was also interested in adding a woodland and beach location and colored smoke.
I sent him an online Proposal Look Book of images that represented what I thought would be the best choices for their San Francisco engagement. At first, his choices were spread out across the city, and I suggested that we cluster his choices together for more shoot time and less driving. After discussion, he decided for his two and a half-hour time frame, that he'd start at the Palace of Fine Arts to pop the question, then move to Lovers Lane in the Presidio for engagement photography, sunset nearby at East Beach with a view of the Golden Gate Bridge for his colored smoke scene and lastly loop back across the street to the Palace for a final scene with the majestic dome lit up.....and the sweetest crickets serenading them!
His plan was to take Heather on a trip and wrap up the last few days in San Francisco. They drove up from San Diego with both sets of parents. They had talked about getting married, but she didn't suspect at ALL that it would happen on this trip. Heather thought it was just a nice way for the families to get to know each other and start to bond, but that was all. I had mentioned to him ahead of time that he'd need to find a way to make sure that her nails were done for the closeup engagement ring shots, and that we'd need to subtly make sure she wore something that she'd be happy to see in her surprise proposal video. Naveen sweetly took her dress shopping for the trip, and following my engagement outfit guide, bought her a beautiful rose colored maxidress. It was perfect.
He chose a very dramatic and romantic proposal set up. We have a lot of props, and I'm always adding to my collection of items that set the stage for romance. We created a huge heart on the ground in front of the Palace Of Fine Arts lagoon, with more than fifty battery-operated votive candles, and white light-up marquee letters that said "Marry Me". After doing research online, Naveen found some photographs that really inspired him and asked what I thought about lining the heart with fresh red rose petals? This took the design I had and amplified it to a next level visual. The heart was going to be about six feet across, so that was a LOT of fresh rose petals. I won't use anything that's environmentally unsafe for the local birds and bees, so fake flowers are never used, and we always leave no trace behind at any of our sessions.
To make a long story short, at the last minute it was revealed that the world was having a red rose shortage due to storms in South America where many commercial roses are grown. The order I'd placed was canceled by the company, the local stores were low on inventory but there was absolutely no way that the show wouldn't go on. With the help of Youtube tutorials, my partner and I ended up making eight dozen rose petals by hand. Problem solved.
The day of the session felt really good. I arrived about forty minutes early to start the setup process and my assistant and I started laying out the large heart shape with the candles. It was a beautiful sunny Saturday and we quickly drew an interested crowd and a lot of questions. Everyone was curious and asked a million questions about what was happening, could they take a picture in our heart and mostly, WHEN was this all going to go down?
We'd already given Naveen and both sets of parents a photograph with the area we'd set up for him to pop the question, circled in red. We had a huge bush for their parents to hide behind to view the proposal and champagne chilled and waiting for them to congratulate the couple after his marriage proposal. Interestingly, the crowd was NOT going away! I realized I was going to have to take charge and give the fifty nearest people directions on how to act like they were just enjoying the view and not eagerly awaiting the couple's arrival.
The parents arrived and were tucked away, Naveen and Heather planned a little couples time for themselves before the family dinner that night, so she was just taking in the breathtaking beauty of the park. They took a nice promenade around the lagoon, heading towards the awaiting set.....and then they came upon it. She absolutely thought it was there for somebody else, and it wasn't until he steered her directly into the heart, and dropped to one knee that she understood. It was also at that exact moment that a crowd of about a hundred onlookers ROARED their approval!
They were both momentarily stunned by this huge outpouring of support, but he composed himself, asked, got his YES, and swept her into his arms for a kiss to seal the deal.
