Most of the guys who call me already have a spot picked out. Max didn’t. He lives in Salt Lake City, he’d never set foot in Asbury Park, and what he had was a dinner reservation at eight o’clock and about a week to sort out everything before it.
He and Alina met in Ireland four years ago. He was over there running an Ironman with a buddy from high school, she was around with her family watching the race, and that was that. Long distance for a while, then they moved in together, then Salt Lake City for her job.
Her thirtieth birthday was coming up and her family had rented a house down the shore for the week. His family was already on the East Coast for a wedding in Philly the weekend before. He looked at all that lining up and figured, this is the week. The beach would be nice. That was the whole plan when he called me.
The Jetty Was Gated
I always show up early to read the scene, check the wind and the light and where the sun sits, long before anybody walks up. Monday is exactly why. Both sides of Convention Hall were fenced off and gated for a concert that weekend, and the jetty I’ve used for every other Asbury Park proposal, the one just north of the building, was sitting inside the fence.
Max and Alina were going to that concert later in the week. It was funny then. It’s funnier now.
So I walked. Went in from Third Avenue, past the candy store, and found a jetty on the south side with nobody on it at all. Off season, on a Monday, that end of the beach is empty. That’s the whole argument for doing this in September instead of July.
Alina’s sister Samantha drove down with their mom and set the whole thing up while Max kept Alina busy. I told Samantha where the blanket went, where to stand the champagne, where the candles went. I marked where to park and which ramp to walk up, so they’d come in from the right direction and Alina wouldn’t see any of it until she turned around.
Where I Hide
People ask how this part works, so here it is. I get there about an hour early and walk the spot. Where the sun is going to sit, which way the wind is coming, whether anybody is likely to wander into the frame. Then I mark the exact place I want him standing, photograph it, and text him the picture so he knows where to walk.
I also tell him which way to turn her. That one matters more than it sounds. If the wind is coming off the water and she’s facing into it, her hair is across her face for the entire reaction and there is nothing anybody can do about that afterward.
Then we disappear. I bring a second professional on every proposal, so there are two angles on the moment instead of one, and neither of us is anywhere she would think to look. She has no clue we are there until it is over. Then I walk up like a guy who just happened to be on the beach with a camera, which is a bit I enjoy more than I should.
Her Hands Went Straight to Her Mouth
Right before it happened I had to ask a couple of people to move out of the background. That happens on every proposal I shoot, without fail, usually in the last sixty seconds. Then my second professional and I got out of sight and waited.
He got down on one knee and her hands went straight over her mouth. They stayed there a long time.
Then the champagne, which he opened about as carefully as anybody opens champagne on a beach. Which is to say, not carefully at all.
A Word About Rose Petals
They brought rose petals. A lot of rose petals. I’ll say this as nicely as I can. Don’t bring rose petals to a beach proposal. The wind takes them and they end up everywhere except where you wanted them.
They’d already bought them, so we used them after the yes instead of during it. My second professional stood off to the side tossing them over the two of them while I shot.
Then the Seagulls Came
Every seagull in New Jersey. Not South Jersey. New Jersey.
They came in from every direction at once and went after the petals, in the air and off the sand. They circled the two of them. One found the cardboard box the candles came in and started eating that.
Then one went for a petal sitting right next to Max’s bare foot, missed the petal, and got his foot instead. What’s below is that one second, in order, straight off the camera. The second frame is the close up, in case you want to see exactly what I mean.
He felt it, looked down, and kept holding on to her. Alina was laughing too hard to stand up straight. I’ve never seen anything like it in 21 years, and none of it was in the plan, which is usually how the best frames happen.
Golden Hour, and Dinner at Eight
Then we walked the waterline while the sun finished going down, and the two of them mostly forgot I was there. That’s the whole point.
The sky did what it does down there in September. They had two families waiting at a restaurant in town and a whole week at the shore ahead of them.
About Asbury Park, and the South End
Asbury Park was founded as a planned Methodist resort in 1871 by James Bradley, who named it after Bishop Francis Asbury and laid out the streets himself. Convention Hall went up in 1930 and is still the building everyone photographs. I’ve shot almost every proposal in this town on the jetty just north of it. The south end is quieter. The jetties down there are just as good, the sightlines back to the boardwalk are cleaner, and on a weekday in September you’ll have the sand more or less to yourselves. The north end gets fenced off now and then for concerts and events on the beach, on no schedule you can plan around. If you turn up and it is gated, walk south from Third Avenue and look again.
Parking is the other off season gift. In July you circle for twenty minutes. In September you pull right up. Either way, sort out how you are paying before you get there. The city runs street parking through ParkingApp.com, and you can pay by text as well.
More proposal stories: Zachary and Skyler in Bay Head, and Kyle and Nicole in Brant Beach.
Ready to Start Planning?
If you’re flying in from somewhere else and you don’t know the shore at all, that’s most of the people I work with. Tell me your date and I’ll help you find the spot and get the timing right around sunset. There’s always a backup plan. Fill out my proposal inquiry form here and let’s get started.