When I was first asked about shooting Michael’s proposal to Kristen, I immediately said yes! (pun intended ;)) I was so excited and honored to be a part of such a special time in their lives. All of Kristen’s family was in on the surprise proposal, and everyone managed to keep the secret under wraps for months!

What Kristen thought was happening was that all of the kids were getting together for a session as a gift to her mom for Mother’s Day. She had no idea that this session was actually planned by Michael because he was going to ask her to marry him!! At the beginning of the week we were all starting to get a little nervous because the weather forecast was calling for rain. If this were any other session I could have easily asked for a reschedule, but Michael was proposing so it had to happen!! We ended up going to Belle Isle in Detroit because there was a covered area just in case the weather didn’t cooperate. We ended up doing the proposal at the beginning of the session and it worked out perfectly! The rain held off just long enough for Michael to pop the question.

I had to set Kristen up in a way that she wouldn’t be looking at Michael, so I had her face me while I told Michael to walk up and hug her from behind. That was just our warm up. We did a couple shots with this pose and then I asked Michael to do it one more time. This time Michael would be getting down on one knee while I was telling Kristen to turn and face him and…well, you know what happened next 😉 As you can tell, Kristen was completely surprised and of course she said YES! She couldn’t believe that everyone knew and that nobody had spilled any details. After months of planning, Michael pulled it off. Not only did he do a great job planning the proposal, but he also did a great job on the ring 😉

I am SO happy and excited for these two. Congrats Kristen and Michael, and thank you so much for allowing me to capture such a special time in your lives!