A Proposal Photographed

Last week I got the pleasure of shooting my very first proposal at Hitchin Lavender. I’m not going to lie, I was a little nervous. I think not having shot a full blow wedding since last December may have added to the nerves a little!! But everything went as planned for the lovely Mustafa, who contacted me the previous week to tell me of his romantic proposal plans. It was such a wonderful moment to witness, with a perfect backdrop of stunning rows of purple lavender. And of course his beautiful Rakan said yes !

The Proposal

I am so lucky to have Hitchin Lavender on my doorstep so I was super exciting when Mustafa suggested it was held here. I wasted no time in booking a ticket to go and check out the best place to propose. I have been here a number of times and shot a wedding here but I’ve never been there with the mindset of how it would look capturing a real proposal. So I went there looking for all the stunning spots you could pop the question.  I thought about the logistics of Mustafa proposing in the tight rows of lavender and decided that this might be too difficult, as the rows are very narrow and to capture the moment properly, front on, they would need to be in different rows and Mustafa wouldn’t have much room to go down on one knee, plus the wasps!! It also seemed that most visitors flock to the first few rows, these are a more vivid purple so naturally draw people in! I knew he wanted it to be as quiet as possible so I decided the best spot was further along the field, there is a break in the lavender and an aisle of green drawing the eye to the top of the field. It made a great composition! It also gave me more room at the bottom to shoot from, I wanted it to feel private so I decided to use my beast of lens the 70-200m. Now, I know this isn’t the most discrete lens, but it would allow Mustafa to have some privacy whilst I could get some lovely shots from a far. I kept thinking about how odd it would look to be sitting alone with a huge camera, so last minute I dragged my wonderful sister along to help me look a little less conspicuous. This was such a great call, my sister is a drama teacher so she loved playing the part of a local author who wanted to have some headshots taken in the field. She was also able to kindly ask visitors to the fields if they wouldn’t mind holding back for a few minutes while Mustafa proposed. Without her I may have had extra people walking in front on them during the exact moment!

It really was beautiful (my sister was crying!)  and everything played out just as we had hoped it would. After Mustafa and Rukan had some time together to enjoy the moment, I came and said hello and captured some couple shots of them in the field. I love the photos, you can really see the excitement and love between these two, being part of their special moment was a true honour and I am so pleased with the outcome.

“Thank you so much, for your amazing work and your bubbly and friendly personality. You made me feel so comfortable while taking those shots. Will definitely recommend you to friends and family. Sending warmest wishes to you and your family. ❤️ ” – Rukan

Hitchin Lavender is one of my featured wedding venues. If you would like more info on holding a wedding here then click here, or go direct to their site here.

The Photos