When I got an inquiry from Garrett about proposing to his long-time girlfriend, Matisse, I maybe screamed with joy at my screen!  Not only because I love love, but shooting a proposal has been on my bucket list for a while, and I was so thrilled to get the opportunity with these two!  

I first photographed Garrett and Matisse back in the spring of 2024 with the rest of Garrett’s family who were out from western Washington for a visit.  I got to know their story just a little bit and have been rooting for them ever since.

Garrett had some big ideas for this proposal, but we had a few constraints–mostly that the proposal had to happen on a very specific day, and that happened to be a weekday, after daylight savings ended, so the sun set was very early!  Since there was so little time between the end of their work day and when the sun set, we opted for a sunrise surprise proposal.  Garrett planned to take Matisse on a walk with their dogs through the new development near their neighborhood like a typical morning, and he’d surprise her.

And luckily enough we had a beautiful morning, with a STUNNING sunrise.  I brought the longest zoom lens I own, and I hid a little too well behind some tumbleweeds, and in the end the dogs totally gave me away!  

I got to witness the moment when Garrett got down on one knee, poured his heart out to Matisse, and asked “Will you marry me?”.  I got to capture her smile, raw joy, and her enthusiastic, ‘yes!’

And then, as if the universe just understood, the sun came up and out of the clouds and we had a spectacular sunrise, we snapped a few more shots, and then they carried on with their walk, headed to their day, and I went home buzzing with excitement for them.

But it wasn’t the end of our time together that week because just a few days later, we photographed their engagement session out at Twin Sisters Wallula.  Look for that post next!