Surprise Marriage Proposal

When JR contacting me about planning a Surprise Marriage Proposal he pretty much knew what he wanted to do, we just had to come up with the game plan to make it happen and surprise his girlfriend Jennifer. He knew he wanted to do it on the beach in La Jolla and it was between doing it at the beachfront hotel they were staying at and doing it under beautiful the Scripps Pier a mile from the hotel. 

Sometimes keeping it simple is the best plan. While the pier was only a mile away from the hotel there was a chance that timing would become an issue. The plan was to make dinner reservations and get dressed up to go to a nice dinner if there was a delay in getting ready this could make it seem unnecessary to visit the pier before dinner. We opted to do it right on the beach in front of their hotel. 

JR hired Thomas Giglio to play the guitar during the proposal. So the plan was to have Thomas and me on the beach ready for them when they went for a sunset walk before dinner. Thomas would just hang out there playing the guitar and I would try to hide and capture the surprise without being seen. The second part is a little bit hard on an empty beach in February but I was able to find some people to hide behind. 

The plan worked perfectly! Jennifer was completely surprised and did not even notice me as I ran all the way around them so that I could capture her reaction. That was probably the fastest I’ve ever had to move while photographing something. I’m just glad that it was flat winter sand and not the deep soft summer sand.