Normally, when photographing engagements, if I haven’t met the person getting proposed to before, I can hide in plain sight leading up to the proposal; I just pretend to be taking photos of my surroundings while actually keeping an eye out for the couple’s arrival. In the case of Andrew and Mary’s Gramercy Park proposal, though I hadn’t met Mary before, I had to do things a little differently. You’re not technically supposed to take photos inside the park, so standing around with a big professional camera would have gotten me in big trouble. The last thing I wanted was to be discovered with my camera, be asked to put it away, and miss the chance to capture Andrew and Mary’s moment! So I sat on a bench with my camera hidden in my backpack, hand on it, ready to pull it out at a moment’s notice once they walked in.

Turns out, when you’re photographing a couple who is clearly getting engaged, the people in charge are willing to bend quite a lot of rules. We were left alone for the entirety of our shoot (even had someone from the park’s team come up and congratulate the happy couple!). Overall it was such a beautiful day with the sweetest proposal. It just takes one look at this series to see how happy and in love these two are. Congratulations, Mary and Andrew!