This post is going to require a little backstory…
Back on September 5th of this year, I was photographing Andrea & Nate’s wedding when I was pulled aside by one of the groomsmen, TJ, outside of the church before the ceremony. I had known TJ for a couple of years, and his girlfriend, Alex, and I used to work together. He said, “I need to talk to you… I bought a ring,” and explained that he wanted to propose to Alex and have me there to secretly photograph the whole thing. And of course, my immediate reaction was, “Holy crap! Yes! That’s so much fun! We’ll talk when I’m not in the middle of shooting Nate’s wedding…!” We exchanged numbers and went back to our respective wedding day duties.
Two weeks go by after that day, until I finally get a text from TJ that he wants to run some ideas by me about how the proposal will go down. Being that it’s fall in the ‘Burgh, there are fall festivals and pumpkin patches happening every weekend. TJ thought of this ADORABLE idea to take Alex to one of these festivals and use the help of a hollowed out pumpkin to aid in his popping the question. You’ll see the details of this plan come to life in the photos below, but in the meantime, he and I needed to figure out exactly how we were going to pull this off. Which farm are we going to? How will we get The Pumpkin in place without Alex knowing? How will we find The Pumpkin again in a giant sea of ordinary pumpkins? Where the heck do I go in a field with nothing to hide behind so Alex doesn’t spot me? Plus, she knows who I am! We needed to get together… And even planning THAT was difficult because I could never text TJ out of fear that Alex was around and I’d blow our cover. So even if I had questions or ideas, I just sat and waited sometimes days before he’d have a chance to text me when he was alone. Super shady business!
We finally met a week later on a Sunday afternoon while Alex was at work. Again, shady. Ha! That afternoon we had nailed down some good ideas and chose the farm where we wanted to have it all take place. Things seemed to be falling together really well, until about 10 days later when the farm suddenly stopped communicating with TJ about his plans. So we found a different farm that held their fall festivals on weekdays, and this ended up being the perfect place.
The following Monday, TJ and I headed to Simmons Farm in McMurray, PA to scout the location where the proposal would happen two days later. Once we arrived, it dawned on us both that the actual pumpkin patch wasn’t the best idea, but lucky for us, Simmons Farm has a beautiful apple orchard that we decided would be the perfect setting. TJ and I mapped out the exact spot where we’d place The Pumpkin so that the light would be pretty and so that I’d have a proper hiding place. Everything was set.
The next night at about 10pm in yet another shady meet up, TJ and I met in a parking lot in Bridgeville where The Pumpkin handoff took place. He had it all prepared, hollowed out, Sharpie message written on the front, and the note to be placed inside. Now I had to keep this thing safe for the next 17 hours… Talk about nerve-racking! Not to discount the nerves one feels when he’s about to propose to his girlfriend the next day or anything, but in those 17 hours, this whole thing going down exactly as planned solely relied on my ability to transport The Pumpkin home that night, leave it on my front porch since it couldn’t be in room temperatures (and hope that deer don’t eat pumpkins, because God knows they eat everything else out there), seatbelt it into my front seat again the next day to take it to Simmons and plant it in our pre-determined proposal spot in the orchard that we scouted on Monday. Yeah, no big deal…
Finally, it’s 3:30pm on Wednesday and I just arrived at Simmons Farm. I sent TJ’s mom a text to let her know I was there, since texting TJ at this point was totally off limits since he was definitely with Alex. By 3:45pm I had The Pumpkin in its place. And now, I wait…
After what seemed like an eternity for no other reason other than when you’re in an apple orchard completely alone for a full hour about to photograph someone’s surprise proposal after over 5 weeks of careful planning, there’s really nothing else to occupy your mind other than that very thing eventually happening and all of the different ways it could either go exactly as planned or completely not as planned whatsoever, TJ’s mom finally texted me at exactly 4:53pm and said they’re here! Game on!
I got myself in place, and about 10 minutes later, I could hear them rounding the bend. From behind an apple tree, I watched their feet through the leaves until I knew Alex’s back was to me. Then I crouched down and got to work! The images below will play out the story of how the rest of the day went from that moment on. And not to spoil any surprises, but, SHE SAID YES!!
And of course I couldn’t pass up the invitation to come along on a hayride!
Congratulations TJ & Alex! It was such a blast and an honor to be asked to play such an important role in your marriage proposal! A special thanks to Simmons Farm for being so cooperative and helpful in the planning and execution.
Happy wedding planning you two!
Feel free to browse the galleries on my website for more eye candy, and contact me to book your own proposal or engagement session when you’re looking for a Pittsburgh wedding photographer!
