A surprise proposal at SCC Botanical Gardens

I had been anxiously watching the weather all day.

Cameron was planning to propose to his girlfriend Amanda that afternoon and it had been raining all morning, dark clouds looming and threatening more rain.

I texted Cameron to make sure that he wanted to go ahead with our original plan for his surprise proposal at SCC Botanical Gardens, or if he’d like to switch to our backup plan of the porch at the Carolina Hotel in Pinehurst. He confirmed that we were going with the original plan so I suited up in head to toe Gore-tex and headed to the gardens.

Planning how to photograph a surprise proposal is always a little tricky. You have to choose a location private enough that your intended will be comfortable (especially if they don’t love to be the center of attention) but also public enough that your photographer can be there without raising suspicion.

That’s doubly hard when it’s pouring rain.

For this surprise proposal I arrived early to the SCC botanical gardens with an umbrella and book in tow and parked myself on a bench across from where I knew Cameron planned to propose.

Or so I thought.

You see, there were two sets of benches in that part of the gardens and he walked right past the first set where I was staged straight to the second set.

Fortunately, because I was tucked away behind a hedge they didn’t even see me as they walked past and I was able to stealthily sneak after them to capture the surprise proposal from behind a low wall leading into the garden! Amanda had no idea I was even there until Cameron pointed it out after he was finished.

After a short wait for the rain to let up a bit we had an amazing portrait session and I am low key obsessed with the rainy day Notebook vibes.

Check them out…