Verina & Thomas

Every proposal I photograph starts with a meeting with the person planning to ask. I am a quiet person most days, but these conversations always fill me with energy, because there is nothing quite like sitting with someone who is about to ask the most important question of their life. Thomas and I hashed out every detail of the surprise together, where Verina would be coming from, where I would hide, what the signal would be, and most of all, the feeling he wanted the moment to have. It was clear from the start that the place mattered more than anything, a stretch of the river he used to visit with his grandmother, right on the Potomac in Old Town.

Verina and Thomas are a young couple and so sweet together, and you could feel how much love and thought Thomas had put into the day. He set up a path of red rose petals lined with roses and candles right by the water, and I stayed hidden with a long lens so that nothing about the moment would feel staged. When Verina realized what was happening, the shock and the happiness came all at once, and Thomas, down on one knee, looked nervous and completely sure at the same time. That kind of pure, raw emotion is impossible to fake, and it is the reason I love photographing proposals so much.

A proposal on the Potomac in Old Town

Then, as quickly as everything had gone quiet, it turned into a celebration. Thomas’s friends came out to cheer and tossed him into the air beside the river while Verina watched it all unfold. I loved how this proposal held both feelings at once, a deeply personal moment rooted in family and memory, followed right away by pure joy shared with the people who love them.

I treat every proposal with love and respect, because I know how much trust it takes to let someone in on your biggest secret, and I do everything I can to make the moment feel magical and memorable. That spot on the Potomac already meant something to Thomas. After this day it means something to both of them, and I hope every time they walk past it, they remember exactly how it felt.