Planning the Perfect Marriage Proposal
Proposal day should provide you and your significant other with special memories. As you prepare to ask the most important question of your life, we’re here to ensure everything goes off without a hitch! We have found the following tips to be very helpful as you prepare to pop the BIG question.
1. A Strong & Believable Cover Story
Could you ensure you have a cover-up story and have it down to a tee? We find it best to keep the cover-up story simple and easy to avoid raising any red flags and, above all else, to remember to stay calm and collected to avoid giving anything away. The last thing you want to do is give away the big surprise, especially after all the hard work and money you’ve invested.
2. Safe Keeping of the Ring & Ensuring You Have It on the Big Day
Never underestimate the curiosity of your significant other. If a holiday, birthday, or anniversary is approaching, remember that curiosity might get the best of them. It’s best to find a hiding spot that is out of sight and out of mind. It is also vital to ensure the ring is easily accessible on proposal day. When that day comes, ensure the ring is in a safe yet easy-to-reach spot to avoid mishaps. Having a game plan and running through it a few times will typically leave you feeling more confident and prepared for one of the most significant moments of your life!
Proposal at Chautauqua Park 2022 - Timeless Visionaries
3. Plan a Script & Stick To It
Preparation is the key to success, and this particular moment in your life is far too important to try and freestyle. Be sure to take a few moments beforehand to think about what you might say before asking the love of your life to marry you. Short and sweet is perfectly fine, but including a special memory, telling them why they are your person, and why you want to spend the rest of your life with them, are all suggestions that will make an already intimate moment much more personable and memorable.
4. Remember to Stay Calm & Don’t Rush
We understand that such a big commitment and everything leading up to it can create a very high-pressure situation. Our best advice is to stay calm and remember what has brought you to this point. On proposal day, remember to eat a good meal and stay hydrated. If emotions or jitters get the best of you, take a deep breath and try to focus on how incredible your big surprise will be.
5. Share Your Location With Lemar & Dora
This may seem obvious or strange to some, so let us explain. For starters, (if you don’t have an iPhone, you can skip to #6 but remember to update our team with any changes that defer from the original plan or location.) If you have an iPhone, share your location with someone on our team on the day of. This small yet crucial step will allow your photographer/videographer to adjust to any deviations in the original plan while avoiding the risk of blowing our cover and your big surprise by texting or calling back and forth.
*This step is optional but highly recommended if you have an iPhone and feel comfortable doing so.
6. Have a Back-Up Plan…Just In Case
At Timeless Visionaries, we believe in being over-prepared. Our advice is to ensure your plan B is as good as your plan A. Even though we hope you will never have to use it, we understand that sometimes, life happens. Please make sure we, as your photography and videography team, know the backup plan at least a few days before the big day. Regardless of what happens, we believe it will be perfect in every way because it will be uniquely yours!
7. Plan A Celebration
After achieving one of the biggest wins of your entire life, you have every reason to celebrate! Our highly skilled and well-versed team has shot some of the most significant sporting events on some of the biggest stages. We have learned through our experiences that the high adrenaline rush you will experience during or shortly after you pop the big question is similar to winning a Super Bowl Championship. We say all this to encourage you to make plans to celebrate such a big win together or with loved ones. It’s important to commemorate such a special event in your lives and continue to create lasting memories. Tom Brady would never win a Super Bowl Championship without celebrating (we can speak from experience), so you shouldn’t either!
8. Clear Your Schedules
Whether this means clearing the entire day or the following one, be sure to coordinate with both your employers and anyone else who might need to be aware of the plan without spilling the beans.
9. Take a Moment - Just the Two of You
As cliche as this may sound, so much of life comes at us faster than we can process! On top of that, big moments nowadays usually involve social media updates and sharing your big news with the rest of the world before you’ve even had time to process it yourself. This is why we suggest taking a moment to soak it all in. This can mean the two of you sharing an intimate moment directly after you propose or reminiscing about your special moment and the details leading up to it on your drive to the after-party. Whatever this looks like to you, we strongly encourage you to take the time to do so. Social Media isn’t going anywhere, and by the time you get to where you are going, our team of professionals will be sure to send you a few of our top-rated photos so that you can adequately share them with whomever you please. (Make sure to hold tight until you receive these)!
10. DOWN ON ONE KNEE- NOT ONCE BUT TWICE!
We saved the best for last. Just so we are clear here, below is going to give you a step-by-step play of ensuring your moment is perfect while allowing our team to capture the best photos/videos. This step-by-step playbook is derived from shooting 50+ proposals and realizing, over time, what works best for our couples while also ensuring their photos/videos are everything they hoped they would be.
1. Get Down On One Knee
2. Pull Out The Ring
3. Relay Your Special Message To Your Partner
4. ASK THEM TO MARRY YOU!!!
Now here is the crucial part that we hope you will remember it. You will be nervous! This isn’t us trying to scare you by any means; we need you to understand that regardless of all your preparation, this is a massive moment in a person’s life, so it is only natural that you will experience an influx of emotions. This is why we said we saved the best for last…well, that and we hope that if this is the last thing you read, hopefully, it will stick!
Once your partner says “YES,” it will be a fantastic moment for you to share. Be sure to stand up and embrace them in any way that feels comfortable to the two of you. Take a moment, as you will likely be emotionally overcome. Some people cry, some scream, and some jump up and down; it’s unique to the individual and the couple. In some rare cases (like ours, for example), your partner might stare at you or the ring with a blank, expressionless look. Regardless of how your partner processes the moment, the next step will ensure that this once-in-a-lifetime moment is captured beautifully and timelessly.
Once you see that your partner has processed what is happening (usually 5-10 seconds after you all have hugged/kissed), we ask that you go back down on one knee AGAIN. Then, we suggest placing the ring on your partner's finger and sealing the deal. Amazing photos/videos will be captured during this time, and you can then, once again, stand up and embrace your BETTER HALF! Once the ring is on your partner's finger, take a moment to look at the ring and truly enjoy what you have just accomplished.
Bonus: Once all of the pure joy and excitement subsides, Timeless Visionaries will offer the two of you a mini-engagement session. This will be very quick unless you tell me beforehand. You can expect your mini-engagement session to last about 10-15 minutes and include a few posed and candid images of the RING and the two of you relishing the moment and just having fun.
We are very excited to work with you and would be honored to play a part in one of the happiest days of your entire life! If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to reach out before the big day. Remember, it's YOUR Super Bowl… are you ready?