Diane’s Emotional Proposal to Marissa in High Park

Diane’s excitement about proposing to Marissa was palpable from our very first conversation

As if proposing isn’t anxiety* inducing enough (*an anxious excitement tho; ‘anxiety’ in the sense of wanting everything to go well and feeling so much anticipation and joy in the best way possible), Diane and Marissa are not even from Toronto! They were planning a little summer getaway so on top of sorting out the logistics of their vacation there was a lot to figure out in terms of secretly fitting this proposal into their plans too.

When it comes to proposals over the years we’ve found that they go one of two ways: option 1- there are friends and/or family involved, someone that we can communicate and coordinate with that is not the couple themselves ( like this). Option 2- no one else involved, it’s just between the us + the proposer. When it’s the latter sometimes we try to bring our own friend (or in one case my family, lol long story) along to use as a decoy so we don’t look too suspicious being alone but with this proposal unfortunately no one was available to hang with me so it was truly just myself and Diane in on the bit.

Here’s where things got a little complicated and stressful (for me, the photographer): Diane mentioned that they would prefer to be somewhere quiet and surrounded by lots of trees and fortunately their AirBnB ended up being right near High Park so it only made sense for us to go there early in the morning. The only hitch I was concerned about is that High Park is closed to cars on the weekend so they had to park along Bloor Street, walk in, we’d somehow have to find each other, and then I’d have to closely but not too closely follow them and wait for things to happen…

Of all of the things we prepare for, what I didn’t anticipate was the park being too quiet! This was great for them since they value their privacy and wanted to have this moment to themselves and not a dozen bystanders, but when it came to following them there were no crowds for me to fall into, and when they selected a big, beautiful, tree to set up their blanket and coffee, they chose a big open patch of grass where the only place I could not be seen with my camera out was behind them, behind a bush. Shoutout to my sister who I called while I was following them so I could pretend to be just any other person out for a morning stroll on the phone, until I suddenly had to be like ‘it’s happening, I have to go!!!!!’ and abruptly hung up lol.

As soon as Diane got down one their knee it was immediate water works for both Marissa and myself behind the camera hahah. It was emotional, exciting, and so so beautiful! We are so grateful for out of town visitors who reach out to us to capture these special moments for them :’)