What I love about this shoot!
1) Colors were the inspiration for this shoot, and who doesn’t like beautiful colors?
2) Cotton Candy was involved, and may or may not have been eaten by me. Yum.
3) My first time using some of the game booths as backgrounds in Santa Monica!
4) After we were done with the balloons we got to see a few kids faces light up when we gave them the balloons!
5) It was a joy and pleasure being able to photograph such a cute couple!

Okay so get this, I get an email from David whose from Ireland and he’s telling me he wants to photos of him proposing on the Santa Monica Pier to his girlfriend who’s from Portugal. It sounded kind of sketchy, but I went with it. Then I spoke to David on the phone, and he sounded like the nice guy ever (and he is!) and plus he’s got this super cool Irish accent. And as it turned out, it was an amazing event and sight to see. I found out that I’m the only person, other than the ring shop, and hotel to know that he was going to propose today.

I gotta tell ya, it’s pretty difficult being incognito in bright day light having to follow David and Tania for about a quarter mile from their hotel to the pier. I felt like a stalker! I had a huge camera with a huge telephoto lens, I stood out like a fat pimple on a forehead. Everytime they paused during their walk I had to pause as well and look around like I’m doing something. But at the same time I had to still look at them, because I wasn’t quite sure when he was going to propose myself.

But then finally, under the pier, David got down on his knee with a cup of coffee a backpack and some shoes tucked under his armpit and popped the question. She said yes! That’s when I came into the picture and introduced myself, but not before wiping a couple of my own tears away. It was so beautiful! Congratulations to you two! Thank you so much for the beer afterwards! Post-shoot beer is awesome!!!

Santa Monica Pier Surprise Proposal Engagement Session Erich Chen Photography. Santa monica Pier beautiful creative proposal.