There are few better places in the Triangle for a proposal than Duke Gardens. With 55 acres of gardens, woodland, bridges and winding paths, there are plenty of places to find a little privacy while still having an incredible backdrop for the moment itself.
It’s also hard to think of anywhere around Raleigh, Durham or Chapel Hill that gives us quite as much variety for the photographs afterwards. Within a relatively short walk, we can move between formal gardens, woodland, water, bridges, bamboo and completely different scenery.
This particular proposal didn’t actually start at Duke Gardens, though.
Planning Sumitt’s Proposal
Sumitt originally contacted me about proposing at Fearrington Village. Before the day, I met him there so we could walk around together, look at possible locations and talk through how everything would work.
For a proposal, the prettiest spot isn’t necessarily the best spot. I need to think about where the two of you will be standing, which direction you’ll approach from, where I can photograph from without being spotted, what will be behind you and whether there are likely to be other people wandering through at exactly the wrong moment.
If you’re planning your own proposal, I’ve put together a guide to planning the perfect proposal with more advice on choosing a location, timing and making sure the surprise stays a surprise.
Most importantly, it has to feel completely normal to the person who doesn’t know any of this is happening.
As we continued planning, some questions came up around Fearrington’s professional photography policy. Sumitt looked into it and we discussed our options. Rather than leave anything to chance, we decided to change the location to Duke Gardens.
So we met up again and did the whole thing a second time.
I photograph at Duke Gardens regularly and know it extremely well, so I already had several quieter locations in mind. We walked through them together and eventually settled on a tucked-away spot very close to one of the entrances.
That was important to me for another reason: Sumitt could get the nerve-racking bit over with quickly.
There was no need for him to walk a mile through Duke Gardens concealing a ring, attempting to make normal conversation and wondering whether I was actually in position. They could arrive, walk a short distance to the spot we’d chosen and, assuming everything went according to plan, I’d already be there waiting.
Of course, everything didn’t go entirely according to plan.
The Proposal
On the day, Sumitt and I kept in touch as they were leaving and making their way towards Duke Gardens. That meant I could arrive early, get into position and know roughly when to start looking out for them.
We’d already walked through exactly how they were going to approach the proposal spot.
And then they appeared from somewhere else.
Fortunately, I spotted them. I had enough time to realise they were approaching from a different direction, adjust my position and be ready without giving myself away.
That’s actually a pretty good example of why I put so much preparation into proposals. The point isn’t to choreograph every second. You can’t. People take a different path, somebody stands where you didn’t expect them to stand, the light changes, or something else happens that wasn’t part of the plan.
The preparation means I know the location well enough to adapt when it does.
Sumitt proposed, she said yes, (YAY!!! – that would be awkward! LOL) and from that point onwards everybody could relax.
Those first few minutes afterwards are some of my favourite moments to photograph. There’s usually a mixture of excitement, disbelief and laughter as what has just happened starts to sink in. Rather than immediately turning the whole thing into a portrait session, I like to give couples a little space and photograph that naturally.
Then we headed off to explore the gardens.
Engagement Photos at Duke Gardens
This is where Duke Gardens really comes into its own.
There are beautiful places all over the Triangle for engagement photographs, but very few give me this much visual variety without spending half the session travelling between locations.
The red arched bridge is one of the most recognisable features in the gardens, and its colour looks fantastic surrounded by all that green. A few minutes later, though, we can be somewhere that looks completely different.
For this session we moved through several areas of the gardens, using the water, bamboo, pathways, flowers and changing light along the way.
I don’t particularly want a Duke Gardens engagement session to become a checklist of landmarks. The recognisable locations are worth using, but I’m just as interested in what is happening around them — reflections on the water, layers of foliage, something I can shoot through or a little pocket of good light that happens to be there that day.
One of my favourite photographs from this session came beside the bamboo and pond. I stepped well back and photographed through the surrounding foliage, making Sumitt and his fiancée relatively small within the frame. Rather than simply putting them in front of a beautiful background, the landscape becomes part of the photograph.
Other images are much more intimate. I like moving between those two approaches: photographs that give you a real sense of place and others where almost everything except the two people disappears.
Natural Engagement Photography
My approach to the engagement part of a proposal session is pretty simple. I’ll give you enough direction to put you somewhere the light and composition work, but I don’t want you spending the next hour performing a succession of poses for me.
I’d much rather have you walking, talking, laughing and concentrating on each other. Sometimes I’ll give you something to do or make a small adjustment. Other times I’ll see something happening naturally and photograph it.
That doesn’t mean the photographs themselves are accidental. I’m always looking at the light, composition and background and thinking about how the two of you fit into the frame. I want the finished photographs to feel natural while still being visually interesting and considered.
Duke Gardens gives me a huge amount to work with in that respect. We can make something clean and graphic on the red bridge, disappear into the bamboo and greenery, use reflections on the water and then work much closer for quieter portraits. You can come away with photographs that don’t all look as though they were made within a few hundred yards of each other.
Planning Your Own Duke Gardens Proposal
If you’re thinking about proposing at Duke Gardens, I’m happy to be involved well before the moment you actually get down on one knee.
For me, photographing a proposal isn’t simply a case of receiving a location pin and turning up with a long lens. I’ll help you work out where to do it, think about the light and crowds, decide how you’ll approach the location and work out where I need to be so I can photograph everything without ruining the surprise.
And, as Sumitt discovered, if the plan needs to change, we’ll change it.
The aim is to do as much thinking as possible beforehand so that you don’t have to do it on the day. You’ll know where you’re going and what you’re supposed to do. I’ll know where I’m supposed to be.
And if you decide to surprise me by popping out from an unexpected direction, I’ll hopefully spot you anyway and roll with it. :D
Once they’ve said yes, all that planning disappears into the background. The secret is over, you can finally relax, and we can spend some time wandering around one of the most beautiful and varied locations in the Triangle making photographs together.
If you’re planning a Duke Gardens proposal and would like some help putting the plan together as well as having the moment photographed, get in touch and tell me what you have in mind.
