Proposal at the rose garden in the Los Angeles County Arboretum and Botanic Garden || T + A

My client from Canada wanted to propose to his girlfriend during their trip in Los Angeles. They come here regularly because his dad lives in Southern California, so she didn't expect this to happen even though they're traveling, as it's a city that's familiar to the both of them. He arranged to have me photograph the proposal, under the pretense that I was a "garden photographer" as they tour the LA Arboretum for the first time, That way he could have an excuse for her to dress up more than usual as well, since she already knew there will be photography involved. She didn't suspect anything! We started the tour at the fountain, then moved on to different nooks on just the south side of the garden as the grounds are vast and impossible to cover everything. The plan was to move slowly to the rose garden, where he would find a moment to propose there.

It was a really hot day (I think it was 95 degrees) at 1pm, so we were trying to not melt and just be as cheerful as we could be, while finding little interesting spots to shoot. They did amazing looking so effortless and happy despite the intense heat!

We started out in this beautiful little nook under an arch of pink blooms on the trees.

On the way to the rose garden I spotted this little nook with thick tropical looking vegetations and ferns, and big trees. Even though it requires a climb up about 4 feet on a mount of dirt, they didn't mind and followed my lead. It was worth it! It looked like they were transported somewhere magical and does not look like it's super hot during the mid day at all!

I think she was laughing at how much it hurts to be poked by one of those gnarly leaves there. They were sharp and seriously hurt when poked by one! I went ow ow ow a few times moving between the clients and my shooting spot.