When Armin first got in touch, he had seen pictures of the view from the top of Bukchon Hanok Village looking down Bukchon 11th Street and was hoping to have his proposal there. But, I recommended against it as that’s a very specific spot and most of the time, there’s a line waiting to take that specific image.
This conversation was actually before the curfew was enforced at Bukchon, so we could still be there when the light was nice, such as at sunrise. Now, that is not possible due to the rules in place to ensure respect for the residents of Bukchon. These days, I don’t recommend Bukchon at all since during opening hours it’s overrun with tourists. But, back to the story at hand!
After discussing a few other options, we found something that would work. Armin loved the pillars at Seoul’s palaces, so we explored the different options and settled on Changdeokgung for this moment. Being winter, we chose an afternoon session to make the most of the warmer hours of the day and the lovely light we often get in the afternoons. As you’ll see below, we had a wonderful afternoon for this beautiful moment.
First up, though, the proposal. We planned everything for this moment down to where they would stand to get the nicest light and how they should be angled so I could capture it most effectively. Armin absolutely nailed every step and I was able to get the moments without any issues. But, as is so often the case in the heat of the moment, a stray clump of hairs fell in front of Hailey’s face as she looked down at the ring. There’s not much you can do in this situation and it’s super common. But, it wasn’t an issue, as we’ll get to later.
After the proposal, we darted around the palace in search of patches of light and found plenty of gorgeous options to keep us busy. This was towards the end of the pandemic and in the middle of winter, so the palace was almost a private venue for our shoot. It was a wonderful experience to be able to photograph in any direction at any time!
As our time together came to an end, Hailey asked if we could redo the proposal so she could experience it all again. That was great as it saved me asking if they wanted to! We headed straight back to the pillars where we started and staged the proposal with almost as much energy as the real thing! But, sans distracting hairs this time!
Congratulations again to Armin and Hailey. I hope that all is well for you both. To my readers, thank you for making it this far! If you’re looking to have your own proposal photographed, let me know! And, don’t forget to follow my Instagram for even more photos from all over Korea.