This blog focuses on a beautiful Seongsan Sunrise Peak proposal on Jeju Island. There were several criteria that I needed to hit for what Whee Khim had in mind and a few others that we needed to overcome to make this the perfect day for them.
Whee Khim and Cindy would be visiting Jeju Island in autumn, one of the most spectacular times of year to visit the island. While the rest of Korea is slowly turning brown and the leaves are taking on their autumn hues, Jeju is still green. But, the light at this time of year is spectacular most days. This was where our first challenge lay. Their visit would be around the Chuseok holiday (Mid-Autumn Festival) and this particular year, it was the longest string of public holidays in Korea for the whole year. That means several things: crowds, fully booked flights, jam-packed hotels, high prices. But, if you get in early like we did, it’s still possible to visit the island without breaking the bank.
Back to their story, however. Whee Khim had a fairly simple and very common set of requirements for this moment. He wanted a quiet area where they could be alone with some nice scenery like the ocean, mountains, or flowers. We went back and forth with a few locations I suggested and then settled on a lesser-trafficked view of Seongsan Ilchulbong after looking at the itinerary he and Cindy had been working on. Whee Khim shared their plans, as well as some photos they’d found of places they wanted to see together. That was the perfect help for me to recommend just the right spot. Then, being that the name of the place is “Sunrise Peak” and Whee Khim wanted them to be alone, it wasn’t a stretch for him to suggest to her that they visit the area at sunrise. Thanks to all the great information Whee Khim had shared, we had a plan.
He also offered one more insight into himself during the planning process, one that I hear quite often from those I work with. He said that he’s not really the romantic type but wanted this to be as special as possible for her. I offered the same response to this that I always do, “You’re asking her to marry you, not an especially romantic version of you on this morning.” I suggested he try not to be someone he’s not, but instead lean into who he is. Keeping it genuine would make it as special as possible for Cindy. I also shared a couple of things past clients had done to give him some ideas about how he might express himself on the day. As you’ll see in a moment, Cindy absolutely loved it!
After giving my ideas some thought, Whee Khim settled on producing a scrapbook of their time together. We set a clandestine meeting the day before so I could pick that up from him and place it at their location the following morning. After that, we were all set, and all I needed to do was arrive nice and early to make sure everything was in place.
After placing a bouquet of flowers and the scrapbook at the location, I climbed back up and waited for the couple in the park. As I saw them approaching and noted that he’d spotted me, I slipped back down to our exact spot and set my cameras to capture the moment. It was a gorgeous autumn morning, but that meant rapidly changing light that I would need to stay on top of. I pretended to photograph the scene to make sure that Cindy wouldn’t be tipped off by me. Then, as they stepped into place, I began capturing each and every moment. A few months of planning here culminated in a couple of minutes of absolute perfection and they were engaged as the sun crested the clouds!
Moments later, the heavy clouds of the day settled in and we lost all colour in the sky. This gave us a soft, subtle light for the rest of our time together that morning. We made use of that to skip around to a few additional nearby locations. Once we had a good collection of images for the couple, we headed our separate ways to get breakfast and coffee. A huge congratulations to both of you, and thank you so much for having me capture this special day for you.
If you’re reading this and looking to have your own proposal captured, check out my Instagram for some more posts and reach out here to get the conversation started. I’d love to hear from you.
