Marriage Proposal on Queen’s Campus | Kristen + Warren

I’ve been honoured with many really cool and unique shooting experiences in this career and I’m grateful for all of them, but I have to say, it is insanely rewarding to be asked to photograph a marriage proposal. Wedding photography is a continuous rush all day long with moment after moment that will never happen again and it’s a tremendous responsibility. The big difference though is that the couple knows you’re there and there is some flexibility with where you can be during the various parts of the day. A surprise marriage proposal? HA! You get ONE chance. You stay put in ONE place. You pray to the photo Gods that you are not discovered and that your planning comes to fruition in terms of being in the right place to capture facial reactions. What. A. Rush!

Meet Kristen and Warren, both Queen’s grads who’ve left Kingston and moving on with further education elsewhere. They have a really great story of how they became a couple, which I will not dive into, but I do need to mention the infamous Lee’s Laundry at the corner of Division and Earl. In the undergrad days, some really great conversations happened right out front on the stoop, while waiting for the dryer to chime I suppose. With fond memories of this cool spot, Warren decided it was where he wanted to take Kristen back to propose. Perfect, right? Well, not exactly!

A few days before the marriage proposal was to go down, I rolled up on Lee’s Laundry to scout the location and decide where I could stand without Kristen seeing me. What to my wondering eye would appear, but a completely boarded up building where the legendary laundromat used to be. OH NO! What happened next was further reassurance that the coolest fricken people hire me! Warren says, “that’s too bad, but let’s do it there anyway, I think it’s actually pretty hilarious and the significance of the location outweighs the plywood background.” I couldn’t agree more and I’ve said this to so many of my couples, the background never matters as much as your interaction with each other, your smiles, your reactions.

So, Warren proposed to his bride-to-be on the front steps of a defunct, boarded up laundromat and it was perfect. Kristen’s reaction was amazing, she said yes (obviously) and then I revealed myself from behind the cedar bush and green bin I was concealing myself with. With the excitement of being engaged for all of 5 seconds, we went on a campus stroll and made some engagement photographs with some cool light and a few spots around campus they remember fondly…as well as some I just thought looked interesting.

Fun stuff. Enjoy the photos!