Ed and Jordana: New Orleans Surprise Proposal Photography
New Orleans Surprise Proposal Photography
Ed proposes to Jordana at the fountain in New Orleans City Park
When I say that every person who has ever hired me to capture their New Orleans Surprise Proposal was nervous, I am not exaggerating. Every single person is nervous to pop the question. Even though they all know their person will undoubtedly say yes, they’re still anxious about getting it right.
That is, of course, why we plan these out together. Before they ever take a knee, the proposer knows exactly what to do. But that still doesn’t stop the jitters. And even with an iron-clad plan, Ed was jittery!
I arrived at the fountain early like I always do. There was a young family letting the kids run around the fountain but I figured they’d clear out long before Ed and Jordana arrived. The bigger hurdle was a kids’ musical theater class rehearsing “Frozen” about 10 yards from the fountain. They weren’t in the shot but they were not especially quiet. And as adorable as they were, I don’t think “For the First Time in Forever” was the couple’s favorite song (sidenote: I now know all of the words to “For the First Time in Forever”). But I don’t like to interfere with what is happening near a proposal if I don’t have to. I like to give people time to finish up whatever they’re doing and leave on their own without disturbing them. So I stood at the fountain and watched in the direction of where I knew Ed and Jordana would be walking from. It wasn’t safe to text so I fired off an email to Ed and told him to take his time getting to the spot.
Either his Uber took a wonky route or he heeded my warning because it was 10-15 minutes past our scheduled go time when I finally saw Ed and Jordana appear. I knew I had 3-5 minutes before they got to the fountain so I hurried over to the director of the musical and stood awkwardly next to her until she noticed me (the kids were mid-song and I felt awful for distracting them. Fun fact: I was totally a music theater kid back in the day). I quickly filled her in on what was about to go down and asked her if she could wait to play the song again until after the proposal. She said absolutely and offered to leverage the kids in a congratulatory cheer. I told her to go for it. Gotta utilize all available resources!
I headed back to my post and saw a woman standing on top of the fountain and a man sitting directly in front of it. ACK! I jogged over and quickly filled them both in, asking them if they could please move so the couple could do their thing. People never mind moving for a proposal and they pretty much always want to watch.
The kids were quiet, the location was cleared, and all systems were go when Ed and Jordana walked up. He stuck the landing and Jordana was so shocked she teared up. All of the kids cheered and then I heard the director counting them down and they all screamed “CONGRATULATIONS!” in unison. The reaction photos to that are so adorable. Ed kept saying he didn’t believe that Jordana was shocked. But either she needs to be auditioning for the lead in Frozen with those acting skills or she was completely caught off guard.
When I walked over to say congratulations and introduce myself, Ed’s lower lip was trembling. He was so nervous! It was only then that I noticed that Ed had been tearing up too. I’ll even admit that I got misty on this one! I used to cry every single time but after dozens of New Orleans Surprise Proposals (nearly 50 since last Summer!) it’s tough to make me cry anymore. But these two got me! I’m a sympathetic cryer, what can I say?
Looking to book your own Surprise Proposal Planner and Photographer? We can even hire musicians to play for your proposal. They’ll probably play “For the First Time in Forever” if you really want. But maybe I should let it go.😉 I’ll show myself out.
Enjoy this selection of images from Ed and Jordana’s City Park Surprise Proposal!
