On a morning like this, anything can happen.

Your alarm goes off at 4 AM. This is unusual for a vacation morning, especially when it's your day off from running. But you get into the shower anyway and put on the nice outfit you brought. All of this for your sunrise walk at Palmer Park, where you hear you get the best view of Pike's Peak in Colorado Springs.

You get in the car. But.. it's cloudy. Why are we doing this again? Breakfast after better be good...

When you get there, the clouds are covering not only the view of the mountains to the West, but also the sunrise, to the East. And there's no sign of it clearing up. You both decide to go check out the view point. Might as well, right? You're already here.

After a few minutes exploring, you realize you're not the only one there. Just then, it happens. Aaron drops down to one knee, and pulls out the ring. Now, it all makes sense.

She said yes!

And we all knew Ana would. :)

Aaron and his, then girlfriend, Ana were planning a trip to Colorado Springs this summer. And while they had recently been ring shopping together, Aaron told Ana there was no way her beautiful, custom ring would come in time for their vacation. Don't get your hopes up.

He found me through a recent client, and I had so much fun helping Aaron plan for his surprise proposal. I appreciated how detail-oriented Aaron was through his planning, which made us a great match. (Anyone who knows me knows.. I'm always in the weeds). Together, we ran through several scenarios in the planning process. We went through several possible locations, before we settled on Palmer Park.

Originally, we had planned for a sunset session, but the weather had other plans. We were able to pivot our plans to a sunrise session to avoid some scary weather. This worked in our favor, too, as this couple got Palmer Park to themselves, for a private, surprise wedding proposal photoshoot. If you've been to Palmer Park, you know how rare that is.

Some days you can't help but dance in the rain.

I absolutely love helping my clients plan any type of photo session, but there's something even more special about planning a surprise proposal photoshoot. Detail-oriented planning (my specialty) isn't for everyone, but it's what is able to make these sessions go smoothly. And Ana + Aaron's session sure did go smoothly!

As usual, during this session I dedicated some time toward those classic, posed portraits, along with playing games and offering dance lessons (Aaron and Ana, you can definitely use these tips for your first dance, you're welcome, lol!) to get those genuine smiles. Of course, it's hard not to have genuine smiles after you've just gotten engaged!

This session was different than my other session, in that Ana didn't know what the plan was until after the proposal. I followed the action, as discreetly as I could being the only other person at Palmer Park, until after the proposal. We got lucky that there was just enough light on this cloudy morning to capture this moment for these crazy kids to tell their crazy kids the story one day.

And even though it was a cloudy day, we made the most of it. I always bring some emergency umbrellas, but we hardly needed them. We walked along the trail to some of my favorite spots, caught downtown Colorado Springs and Garden of the Gods in the background, and even caught some surprise wildlife in the background of their photos (not in this set, but in their full gallery!)

A perfect pair.

Aaron and Ana - every moment of this session, from planning, to shooting, to editing and delivering your gallery was an absolute joy. I loved working with you both, and learning about each of you individually and your relationship. It's clear to see how much you love each other, and I wish you the happiest wedding planning season, followed by a lifetime of contentment with each other.

I would 1000% work with you again. As I said, let me know if you need a good wedding photographer! ;) And I'll be following along, just in case you and your one-day family make your way back to Colorado Springs.