Surprise proposals

Dylan contacted me about his plan to visit Yellowstone National Park with his girlfriend Mali to tour our national treasure and to plan the magic moment… to propose marriage. He and I worked on the logistics and timing to include several scenic locations after the initial surprise proposal. We exchanged pictures so I could recognize the couple when they showed up at the overlook of the falls on the exact time and date.

It was a glorious morning! When I hiked down to the overlook the sun was beginning to fill the canyon which refracted rainbow rays in the spray from the massive falls. PERFECT! I had the place to myself for awhile until a small group of people began to arrive to view the falls. Soon I saw Dylan and Mali coming down the long wooden stairs toward the platform. They chatted and milled around while waiting for the opportunity to move up to the railing. I could see that other’s present were sensing what was about to happen! I’ll let my images tell the rest of the story!

Congratulations to Mali and Dylan! It was my pleasure to witness and capture this momentous time for you.

2020 is off to good start! Flying in the face of the threat of viral mayhem, this couple flew in from Texas to visit Montana, ski Big Sky and visit our nations first National Park. Unbeknownst to Jessica, Ben had much more in mind for their trip to Yellowstone Park. He contacted me about three weeks earlier to lay out the plan to propose and have it all photographed. This time of year visitors to the Park are few and far between, so it made it a little more difficult to pull it off without giving the secret away. In winter the majority of the visitors are fairly serious photographers hoping to photograph the wolves in the Lamar Valley, so I dressed the part! I got to the agreed upon location and post holed into the most scenic snowscape.
( I should have thought about my snow shoes!)

As they arrived and made their way across the snowy field, I photographed some of the scenic vistas and kept my eye on their progress to the place we had planned. It seemed that life stood still for a few minutes as they had private words and embraced. Then, the magic moment…

I’ll let my photos tell the rest of the story.