A Sunrise Proposal at the Garden of the Gods

This morning, I had the privilege of photographing one of the most special shoots of my career — Troy’s surprise proposal to Anizette.

X-Marks the Spot!

Here’s the twist: Troy and Anizette live in Miami, Florida. And the proposal location he had his heart set on? Garden of the Gods in Colorado — a place I wasn’t very familiar with and about two hours from me.

From the very beginning, we knew this would take some planning. Troy had seen a TikTok of a breathtaking spot within Garden of the Gods, but no one seemed to know exactly where it was.

We searched, we Google-Earthed, we combed through articles — and finally, with the help of a kind journalist who had written about the park years ago, we pieced together the directions.

Even then, I wasn’t going to leave anything to chance. I drove down the night before, stayed at a hotel nearby, and walked the trail myself — sending Troy videos, maps, and step-by-step notes so everything would be seamless.

And the roses? That was all Troy’s idea. He wanted a way to make sure they landed at the exact spot without me stepping in and ruining the surprise. So I placed a few roses in a small vase on the rock ledge, then tucked myself away in the bushes like a professional creeper.

When the moment finally came, Anizette’s reaction was everything you hope for in a proposal — pure joy, shock, and so much love. It was months of planning, a 2-hour drive, a

lot of Google Earth searching, and some serious bush-hiding…but it was worth every second.

These are the moments I live for as a photographer — going the extra mile (or in this case, hundreds of them!) to make sure a memory is captured exactly the way it deserves to be.