07/01/2026
A soldier, his girlfriend’s best friend, and one codeword. This is how the perfect proposal gets pulled off!!!!
This one started with a phone call from Lauren. She was on a mission to help her best friend’s boyfriend pull off something Saylor would never see coming, and she needed a photographer who could make the whole thing work without raising a single red flag. That photographer was me. 👋
Matt is in the military and his time was extremely limited, but we carved out a web call a few weeks before the proposal date and talked through every detail. Location, timing, weather, the whole plan. Lauren’s role was to sell it completely. She told Saylor they were doing a celebratory girlfriends shoot, just the two of them, a fun excuse to get dressed up and take some photos together.
On the day of, I met Matt near the proposal spot before any of this started. We walked the location together, locked in where he would hide, and established our codeword. When my camera settings were dialed and I was ready to capture everything, I would say “PERFECT” out loud. That was his signal to step out of the bushes.
I then met Lauren and Saylor at the trailhead like a normal session. We laughed, we walked, I took some photos along the way to keep it feeling real. When we reached the spot I had chosen, I positioned Saylor so she was facing the right way and Matt’s approach would come from completely behind her. A few seconds later I said “PERFECT.” Matt crept out of his hiding spot and moved toward her. Lauren told me later she caught his shadow in the corner of her eye as the sun was going down and felt it before she even saw him. She quietly stepped back and Matt dropped to one knee.
Saylor said yes. We spent the rest of the evening up in the mountains above Bend shooting some of the most beautiful light I’ve had all year.
If you are planning a proposal in Bend (or anywhere really) and you want someone who will treat every detail like it matters (because it does) link in bio to get started.
