A New Trend

In September, a friend of mine sent me an article published in the New York Times entitled, “Will You Marry Me? Say Cheese!” by Kathryn Shattuck. What does that mean, you may ask? Well, with the advancement of technology and such Web sites as MySpace and Facebook where people post pictures of themselves all the time, why shouldn’t you document the most important event of your life and share it with others? Yes, I mean having pictures taken of your actual marriage proposal.

Anna Post, author of “Emily Post’s Wedding Parties,” says, “The trend is on the rise to have all the moments documented in your life.” She further states that she finds the idea of photographically preserving a marriage proposal “wonderfully romantic.”

My husband “sort of” did this, albeit not with photography, but he did record the proposal on cassette tape, unbeknownst to me at the time. It was a great way to preserve and document his marriage proposal. He had pre-recorded music that we listened to as we walked around on Federal Hill in Baltimore, MD. When he knew the last song was playing, we sat down on a bench overlooking the Inner Harbor. When the song finished, he distracted me somehow and quietly turned on the record button on the tape player and proceeded with his proposal. Afterwards, on the car trip home, he suggested playing the cassette to “hear the songs again.” When the last song finished and I started hearing his voice of what he had just finished saying, I was so surprised, shocked and ecstatic that he had thought of recording it so we could always listen to it. It was a great way to document the proposal and have it forever. We did take pictures prior to the proposal, but he never thought of having a photographer hiding behind a bush to take pictures. However, that seems to be the current trend.

With the onslaught of photojournalism type of wedding photography today, it just seems natural to also take pictures of the actual proposal that begins to tell the story.

With that being said, however, the groom better know his bride really well and know whether she would go for this kind of thing for such a private, intimate moment. She may not be the type who wants that special moment photographed and witnessed by someone hiding in the bushes. In the New York Times article, one bride said, “I thought it was a little stalkerish to know that this person was following you to get these great pictures,” said Briana King, of the secret photo session in December 2004 that Christopher Joralemon, now her husband, arranged with Gruber Photographers. A crew armed with telephoto lenses and dressed like tourists trailed the couple, who were on a stroll through Central Park — ostensibly to attend a holiday brunch — where they’d met at a dog run seven months earlier. “But the end product was good,” Ms. King said. “It was a little weird but definitely worth it.”

Having a photographer following you around like paparazzi might be a little scary or unsettling, but the pictures will be worth a “thousand words” and something you will never be able to recreate.