Captured on the grand marble staircase of the Bottleworks Hotel, this surprise proposal is everything a proposal should be: intimate, dramatic, and completely unrehearsed. He lured her downtown under the pretense of a casual date night, led her into the hotel stairwell, and when she turned around, he was already down on one knee, the ring box in his shaking hand. Her gasp echoed off the marble walls, her hands flew to her face, and the smile that followed lit up the entire lobby.
As your Indianapolis proposal photographer, these are the seconds I live for. Mt second photographer and I had been hiding around the corner for twenty minutes, hearts racing in sync with his, lens ready, fingers hovering over our shutters. The moment he dropped to his knee, we stepped out silently and started shooting at ten frames per second. This image is frame 17 from my second's camera, the exact instant she realized what was happening, and the joy took over. The ornate brass railing frames them like royalty, the warm sconce light wraps them in gold, and that blue ring box glow is the only pop of color in the entire scene.
The Bottleworks Hotel's grand staircase is one of Indianapolis’s best-kept proposal secrets. The marble reflects light beautifully, the architecture screams old-Hollywood romance, and the lobby is quiet enough on weeknights that you feel like you have the entire building to yourselves. (The hotel blocked off the staircase just for this moment)
After the “YES!” (and the tears, and the jumping hugs and kisses that almost knocked them both down the stairs), we spent the next few minutes doing an engagement session in the Bottleworks Dirstrict, champagne pops in front of the hotel, ring shots on the velvet seats, and ended with a surprise engagement party we also stayed to photograph. They walked away with 200 edited images and an iPhone video of the entire proposal, ready to text their families within 24 hours of her saying yes.
He told me later he had practiced this moment in his head a thousand times, but nothing prepared him for how it actually felt. And because we were there, silent, ready, and just as invested as he was, they get to relive that feeling every single time they look at this photo.
Surprise proposals are my favorite kind of magic. One knee. One question. One frame that changes everything.
Let me hide in the shadows and catch yours.
Captured with the Nikon Z9 and a 24-70mm lens with on-camera flash and edited to look like film.
Location: 850 Massachusetts Ave Suite 100, Indianapolis, IN 46204.