Joel’s Surprise Proposal to Heather at Willows Lodge

At the beginning of November I received an email from Paul, who lives in Bellingham.  He was planning to surprise his girlfriend Heather by proposing to her while they were in Woodinville to visit Chateau Ste. Michelle Winery.  He had seen several other surprise proposals that I had photographed when he was looking for a photographer, and wanted to know if I would be available to take pictures as he proposed.  The tricky thing was that the date was just over a week away, and I already had a meeting scheduled for that morning.  We talked about how he planned to do the proposal, and he decided that it would actually work fine to do the photos in the early afternoon so that I would be able to record the proposal.

Next we talked about how Paul could explain my presence to Heather; kind of strange to have some random guy with a big camera and lens following you around!  Paul decided that he would tell Heather that he had hired me to take some “couple’s photos”, something that they had discussed doing at some point.  Next step was to decide exactly where Paul would propose, so that we could make it a good photo opportunity.  They were planning to have lunch at Willows Lodge, which is located just across the street from Ste. Michelle, so we decided that I would meet them at Willows for the start of the photo session, and that at the first “photo spot” I took them Paul would propose.  That way Heather would have the ring, and we could make sure it was prominent in the photos.

Wouldn’t you know it, the day of the planned photo session it was raining and foggy in the morning.  We traded texts as the morning went on and things did not look good for outdoor photos.  We even discussed trying for another day.  But at just about noon the rain suddenly stopped, the fog lifted and the sun even tried to make an appearance.  We were in business!

I met up with Paul and Heather in the lobby at Willows Lodge and right away we headed out to take photos.  I took them to a spot very near the lobby with a beautiful little pond, and Paul immediately dropped to one knee and pulled a ring out of his pocket.  At first Heather did not seem to know what was happening, but when she realized what Paul was doing her reaction was great!  Just look at the photos below to see what I mean.

After Paul proposed and Heather accepted, we spent another 40-50 minutes walking around the grounds at Willows looking for good places for photos.  They had reserved a spot for a tour of Ste. Michelle a bit after 2PM, so we then drove to the winery for a few more photos before their tour.  The grounds at St. Michelle were a photographer’s paradise, with fantastic fall colors and lots of wonderful backdrops.

We spent another 20-30 minutes taking photos on the winery grounds, and then it was time for Heather and Paul to meet up with their tour group.  Please scroll down now and check out a selection of the photos we took that day.  I hope that you like them!