New Orleans Surprise Proposal Photography

Billy proposes to his boyfriend Mark in Washington Square Park

While the majority of my Surprise Proposal clients find me on Google (shoutout to those Google crawlers!), word of mouth is king in New Orleans. After working as a full time photographer in New Orleans for 8 years (and alongside other jobs for 6+ years before that) most people who know me know this is what I do.

Enter Monica, an artist and lover/supporter of working artists in New Orleans. We’ve known each other for years via what feels like a past life. She is most recently familiar with the covid-era video series I created. But somehow didn’t actually know that I’m a New Orleans Surprise Proposal Photographer. Which is why her message to me was extra kismet.

One afternoon in Mid-October, Monica messaged me and asked if I had a ballpark idea how much hiring a person to photograph a proposal would cost. And I said something along the lines of “lol I know exactly how much it costs. You know this is my speciality, right?” And she’s like “WHAT?! REALLY? ARE YOU SERIOUS OMG!”. She had no idea that not only was proposal photography a “thing” but that it was REALLY my thing. She was just hitting me up as a video/photo person in general. I sent her a link to my site and she got excited. Her friend in Chicago, Billy, was planning on coming to his second home of New Orleans Halloween weekend and proposing to his boyfriend, Mark. She wanted to surprise him with a photographer. In her mind, she’d just bring someone along to hide in the bushes and capture the moment. But then she realized that I help people plan proposals and saw that I could add so much more to this event. She connected me with Billy and, at first, he wasn’t sure he wanted help planning. But then he thought about it and realized having a person in town to make sure everything runs smoothly (and help coordinate with Monica and her partner Monty) was just the thing he needed to take the stress out of the moment.

Our planning sesh went wonderfully and I immediately saw why Monica was so fond of Billy. He’s just a big ole sweetheart. The way he talked about Mark and their life together was so sweet and I was really looking forward to capturing this proposal. In addition to this being one strange, kismet kind of thing, this was actually my first gay surprise proposal. IKR?! I’ve photographed countless straight couples and a half-dozen or so lesbian couples but this was a first. I do not know how I had gotten this far as a Surprise Proposal Photographer without getting hit up by a gay couple but I was pretty over the moon that Monica made this happen. (I’m still waiting on that woman who wants to propose to a man… just sayin’!)

Billy wanted to pop the question in Washington Square Park. While he said it’s not the flashiest of places to propose in New Orleans, the space has meaning to these frequent visitors of the Crescent City (they’re buying a house here, too! I hope we get to hang out!). I told him then that is precisely where you should propose and I know just the spot.

I hid Monica and Monty on the day of so they could watch the surprise (since I knew exactly where it would go down and even where they would be entering the park from, I knew where to place the friends so they wouldn’t be spotted). Billy and Mark showed up right on schedule. I overheard them talking about house details while they walked by me on their way to the spot. Billy took a knee and Mark didn’t even miss a beat. He looked down at Billy like “Of course I will marry you what do you think?!” He may not have shown it but he was completely surprised! His joy really sung out in the portraits we took after. Everybody got a bit misty, that’s for sure. Monica and Monty ran over to pop a bottle of bubbly and we all went over the details of the surprise, how multi-layered the whole process had been. It was yet another one of those moments I never want to end.

To plan your own Surprise Proposal in New Orleans,

Enjoy this selection of images from this darling LGBTQ+ Surprise Proposal in the Faubourg Marigny.