My first surprise engagement shoot!

Last week, I was able to help a friend and former coworker surprise his girlfriend with an engagement shoot.

Jared reached out to me in early November with an idea that he was going to set up a “Christmas Card” photoshoot with his girlfriend, Maycen, but with the secret plan of proposing while doing the photoshoot. I was so excited to help him with this!

I helped him search for just the right location and we settled on Minnehaha Falls in Lakemont, which is in northern Georgia. I even hiked it a couple of weeks before to make sure that I thought the location would work for him.

Being an avid Pinterest user, Maycen showed up to the shoot with a huge basket full of props. She brought Santa hats, a chalk board, candy canes, blankets (a huge help because the base of the falls is very muddy), a Christmas tree, and a wooden snowman.

Before starting the shoot, Jared and I had worked out our cues so that we would know when he was going to pop the question. Jared’s signal was going to be that he wanted head shots for Linkd In. After his head shot, my plan was to have Maycen do some solo shots where she would turn around and twirl her dress. I had her face the falls and I would count “3-2-1” and then she would spin towards the camera. On the third time getting the shot, Jared snuck in and dropped to a knee.

Of course, she very happily said “Yes"!”

From there, we went back to shooting their Christmas Card, but with more emphasis on her ring!