Groom-to-be Mark reached out to destination wedding and portrait photographer Melanie Fiander (of Fiander Foto) via email and said he was planning to propose to his girlfriend, Chanel, while they were in Bermuda on vacation.

“He wanted to capture the moment and take some engagement photos afterwards,” says Fiander. “We set up a phone consultation to discuss a game plan.”

During the call, they chatted about a few ideas to figure out how to get Chanel in front of Fiander’s camera while ensuring the proposal would still be a surprise. “I typically shoot with two cameras strapped to my back, which can raise some suspicion for anyone thinking a proposal may be approaching. I offered Mark some suggestions to help ensure the photographs themselves turned out well in terms of the color, lighting and composition.”

When thinking about photographing proposals overall, Fiander says it’s important to have a backstory or ruse, so to speak. “The ruse I come up with for my clients depends on the location of their proposal,” she explains. “I’ll ask if the proposer wants to pop the question at one of Bermuda’s beautiful beaches, nature reserves or historic landmarks. If the clients have extra time, they may opt to propose at one location and then take engagement photos at a second nearby location. In some situations, the client may tell their significant other that they’ve booked a photo tour, which would explain why I appear with two cameras. Or I may pose as a landscape photographer and allow the client to approach me at the preselected location and ask me for a photo.”

Fiander also offers her clients a unique option of proposing at sea, aboard her husband’s 42-foot vintage boat (he runs a fishing and boating business in Bermuda). “When booking a proposal shoot aboard Jim’s boat, Troubadour, the proposer will simply say they’ve booked a romantic sunset cruise,” she says. “The boat ride also comes with a high-res photo to remember their trip by, which is where the ruse begins! I typically pose as Jim’s deckhand and once they’re settled in, I’ll offer to take their photo, which is the big hint for the proposer to pop the question. The key thing to remember about boats is that if the weather is poor or it’s too windy, a backup plan is needed.”

As it turned out, Mark and Chanel were big into boats, so he wanted to propose aboard the Troubadour. “Unfortunately, on Mark’s scheduled date, the wind was blowing about 25 knots—too choppy for a boat ride,” Fiander explains. “With this in mind, we went with plan B, which was for Mark to propose on the steps of St. Peter’s Church in St. George’s, which is an historic town. Of course, with our backup location, we needed a new ruse. Mark told Chanel he booked a photo tour of St. George’s that would include visiting several historic locations.”

Fiander says that St. Peter’s Church, which dates back to 1620, offers quite a picturesque backdrop. “I opted to start our ‘photo tour’ here, and the two of them took a few of their own photos while I talked about the history of the church. After a few minutes, I suggested the two of them stand together for a photo, and that was Mark’s big hint to drop to one knee and ask Chanel for her hand in marriage. From St. Peter’s Church, we made our way around the alleyways of St. George’s, went to St. Catherine’s Beach and Gates Fort.”

Check out the full proposal session here. 

(Photographed with a Nikon D810 and NIKKOR 24-70mm f/2.8 lens, manually exposed at 1/800 sec. at f/5.6 and ISO 250.)

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