Or, The Surprise Proposal I Almost Ruined!

Embarrassingly true story: Agustin spent two months planning his surprise marriage proposal to long time girlfriend, Alondra, and 15 minutes before he pops the question I nearly ruined it.

Yep. Even just writing this is making me cringe again in horror.

Just before we were about to start their couples sunset photo session at Secret Cove in Ko Olina, I was mentioning that I forgot to bring a pen so we could write, "I said yes!" on Alondra's palm... and two seconds later my brain caught up and I realized I had just done the unthinkable and spilled the beans!

Thank God, I somehow didn't freeze... I instantly and somewhat smoothly pivoted and said, "Oh wait, wrong couple. That's Sue and Robert tomorrow night." What's amazing, is that Agustin didn't even flinch either!

I had just been telling Agustin and Alondra that I was in the midst of my busiest week ever and was doing back to back sessions, so I was praying that Alondra bought my outright fib at least a little bit. If she didn't, she was incredibly gracious and played along well anyway!

Whether she did or not (and I haven't had the courage to ask her!), in the end, Agustin still managed to surprise and delight her as you'll see in the images below.

Agustin and Alondra had planned a vacation in Oahu and when she said she'd like to get photos on the beach, Agustin knew he had the perfect opportunity for his surprise proposal (baring thick headed photographers, of course!). So we started the photo session like any other couples session, with a mix of candid and posed shots. Then Agustin surprised me (and later, Alondra) by sneakily displaying Alondra's engagement ring during their posed shots, hiding what he was doing from Alondra. It was all I could do to keep from laughing out loud and spoiling the rest of Agustin's surprises!

And I knew then we had the perfect moment, set up and segway into Agustin's surprise marriage proposal. I casually dropped our pre-planned code word and Agustin immediately went to one knee to ask Alondra if she'd marry him.

Once Alondra accepted and they were done, we continued on with getting as many beautiful engagement photos as we could during the spectacular sunset that showed up soon after.

The next morning we all met again at Waimanalo Beach on the opposite side of Oahu for a follow-up session. Double sessions are great because they give the client a chance to relax and not feel so self conscious about getting their photos taken. Plus, they allow us to add a great deal more variety to their images by choosing a different location and a different time of day. As you can see, the images from their second engagment/proposal session are very different from the first session.