April 14, 2017
I photographed surprise proposals in the past but this one turned out to be a little more challenging because one, this beautiful lesbian couple lives in Virginia, which is a 6 hour time difference. Two, it's a "Surprise Proposal." And three, it's their first time visiting Hawaii but what better place to ask your significant other for their hand in marriage while vacationing in Hawaii, right?
About a month before the engagement date Serwa (wearing pants) had contacted me and explained to me her ideas. She wanted to do this at a beach and either at sunrise or at sunset. We brainstormed for more than an hour about how we could successfully do this without tipping-off her girlfriend, Tiffanie. We talked about different locations and ideas and together we agreed that we're doing this at sunrise in beautiful Waimanalo at Sherwood Forest!
On the day of their photo shoot it rained a bit before the sun came up. But that didn't stop us and it turned out to be an amazing morning in paradise. With the sun rising to welcome a new day and some clouds in the sky, the mixture of texture and color gave us a ready-made painted canvas and all I had to do was place Serwa and Tiffanie where I thought they looked good and capture it on camera. These two were easy to photograph and followed directions very well. It was not hard for them to smile, laugh and have a good time!
After almost an hour at Sherwood Forest, we drove several miles North-East and found this wooden pier. I thought it would be the perfect place for Serwa to propose to Tiffanie because it was in a secluded area and they can enjoy the privacy to themselves. Again, trying not to show Tiffanie any signs of a proposal, we continued to take pictures. After about 15 minutes, I set up the two in a way that only Serwa would know that it was my signal for her to propose to Tiffanie. As soon as Tiffanie saw that Serwa was down on one knee to present her with the engagement ring and ask for Tiffanie's hand in marriage, Tiffanie could not believe what was taking place and started crying. Of course before saying, yes, she had to pinch herself to make sure she was not dreaming, LOL!
There was one thing that I learned from this amazing experience. Prior to all of this, Serwa had asked Tiffanie to get their class rings resized. This is how she found out Tiffanie's current ring size. Its no wonder the engagement ring fit so nicely! It was truly an amazing morning with these two lovely ladies and it couldn't have ended any better. The next morning they flew back home to Virginia, engaged! Thank you Serwa and Tiffanie for having me capture your surprise proposal here in Hawaii.