By Jonathan Ment
When it comes to booking photography for weddings, there are more mothers, or mother’s-in-law, arranging the specifics than men.
Proposals on the other hand? Often a different story.
While I have been contacted by the occasional friend or sister (link) It is generally the ones doing the asking and in more traditional pairings, more often than not, it’s a guy.
Often that first meeting or contact is a nervous fellow on the phone, because often times a lot of thought has gone into making the proposal a wonderful and memorable experience.
“Do you take pictures of engagements?”
Of course!
Sometimes that’s as far as it goes … for a while.
Once you’ve gotten to this point, made up your mind and maybe bought the ring, you’re next working out the details. Phone calls are squeezed in between work and the relationship. It’s not always convenient to go into depth.
That’s how it was with Robert. Memory may be failing me, but I feel we played a little phone tag for days before we arrived on a time we could both guaranty availability to talk more.
Cindy, Robert’s future fiancee didn’t know it was coming (at the time). It had to be a surprise.
They were planning a weekend getaway in Windham, NY and that’s when he would ask.
Oh, and there would be a dog named Maple who might be overly protective of dad.
They were booked into the Eastwind Hotel, barely a biscuit toss from The Windham Path – among the locations I offered when he asked for suggestions, and we set the date and time.
I work with a simple, one-page contract that spells everything out. The rate for service, what I will deliver and when – though I always aim to beat that deadline. Once it’s signed and a deposit is paid, I know things can happen, and while major changes have been few and far in-between over the years I’ve always been able to accommodate them.
So … when the message came in about two months before the big weekend, I was relieved to be able to keep that record in tact. “I was wondering if we could move this up about a month?” Was the gist of it.
For reasons I could only guess at the time, perhaps simply excitement at moving forward in life, this was to be a December proposal not one in the new year!
The hotel was the same the path was the same, but the secret would have to be held for fewer weeks.
Some locations lend themselves to early morning. Kaaterskill Falls (link), for example, gets more crowded with each passing moment. But the path works almost any time of day if the light is right.
I’ve photographed engagements here, family portraits, and proposals. It’s sort of remote while not at all too far off the beaten … path.
Turned out by the time we met, the proposal wasn’t a total surprise (I learned this during the session). Perhaps this is why it was moved up.
Robert asked. Cindy said yes and Maple was more than cooperative.
After the focus of the session, we walked and talked and stopped to photograph some more portraits on the return trip to our cars. That’s when some of the best images are captured, I’ve found. Now that the question has been asked and answered(!), time lends itself to add some more beautiful pictures in the surroundings that have been chosen.
The nervousness is gone and the celebration has begun, at least on a small scale.
And I am there at the start. Wonder why I #lovemyjob ?
“The photos came out great and we got them the next day!,” wrote Robert in an online review. That sort of followup from clients always motivates me to keep doing what I do.
I believe every subject and every event is one of a kind, just like you (and yours!)
Planning something special and need a professional photographer on your team?
Let’s chat.
Email or text (845) 845 430 4030 to get started, or simply dial that phone to chat.
Jonathan Ment Photography
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Jonathan Ment Photography 