Proposals are always one of my favorite sessions to shoot…I’ve always had a love for adrenaline and adventure and those almost always occur during a proposal. Especially when the girl being asked is my own cousin and I am therefore forced to hide in the bushes and shoot in full stealth mode. Peyton is my second cousin (or first cousin, once removed? twice removed? Something like that) and I’ve never actually met her boyfriend of two years, Bradley, but was so excited when he emailed me and told me his plans to propose in April!

Peyton and Bradley met in Optometry School and are both graduating in May! Bradley is from California, so he worked with her friends to plan out the proposal at Piedmont Park. Peyton and Bradley made dinner plans with friends at Willy’s and Peyton dressed up for a supposed meet-up with an eye doctor in Atlanta. Bradley arranged for their friends to text them that they were running late and he planned to propose at Dockside, which is a long and beautiful dock that goes out over the lake at Piedmont. Bradley created a Snapchat filter asking Peyton to marry him. “I know Peyton and she will Snapchat the spot and when she comes across that filter I was drop to one knee.” How cute is that?!

Much to our surprise, there was a wedding happening on the dock when Evan and I arrived so we had to do some quick thinking to find another dock and let Bradley know about the change of plans without Peyton getting suspicious. A few fake phone calls and a mad dash through the woods later, and we got to an alternate dock just in time to capture Bradley hitting one knee.

#shesaidyes! Peyton’s reaction was priceless and I love that she couldn’t stop staring at her [beautiful] ring. Definitely one of the most surprised reactions I’ve ever witnessed!

Congratulations, Peyton and Bradley! We are so excited for y’all and had a blast capturing this special moment that you will look back on forever with joy!