Engagements and Proposals

Featured photos and stories of Myrtle Beach engagement sessions and surprise marriage proposals

You can check out all my latest engagement pictures on Instagram or Facebook!

Couple about to kiss leaning against the pier at state park

Engagement pictures at the Myrtle Beach State Park after the flooding

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I’m sure everyone has heard about the severe flooding we had in SC about a month ago. Myrtle Beach wasn’t hit as hard as some areas, but we still had flooding in many locations. You might have heard me complain that in Myrtle Beach state park, they are incredibly particular about photographers getting anywhere near the dunes. They don’t have to worry about it anymore because many of the dunes’ front slopes are completely gone. The dunes are now just cliffs with the roots of sea oats sticking out of the sides. The water must have been so high that …

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Guy getting a really big hug after surprise proposal - Myrtle Beach State Park

Surprise engagement proposal with the whole family at the Myrtle Beach State Park

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I’ve been doing a lot of surprise marriage proposals recently. I think it’s because I’ve blogged about it several times, and clients must be seeing my posts. Whatever the reason, I always enjoy doing these, so I hope I keep getting more. I believe this engagement proposal was a real surprise. She was under the impression we were doing portraits of the whole family. I took pictures of the five different couples, including parents and grandparents, up by the oak trees and then by the dunes. When it was the about-to-be-engaged couple’s turn for pictures, he picked up the ring box the family had …

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Couple walking down marsh boardwalk together at sunset

Fun engagement pictures in Garden City on a cold afternoon and Storyboard 3

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I haven’t had a chance to blog about engagement portraits recently. Things are getting slow, so I thought I would post pictures from this recent cold weather engagement session down at the southern tip of Garden City Beach. I’ve done many photo sessions in Garden City, but this one was unusual because they live in a private neighborhood where I usually can’t photograph. The southern end of Garden City is beautiful. It’s a short walk from the beach to the boardwalks that go out and over the marsh. I rarely get to shoot on a marsh walkway because most of these are privately …

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Dipping girl back in front of the ocean

Cold and windy day for engagement pictures at the Myrtle Beach State Park

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There are always a couple of winter months when no one wants portraits done outdoors or on the beach. During those months, I always have some things to do, like wedding album layouts and catching up with clients about orders from the previous year, but it’s nice to be getting busy taking fresh pictures again. I seem to be getting an early start this year with some engagement sessions and even a wedding this coming weekend. I’m highlighting the engagement session this time for a couple with an upcoming wedding I’m photographing this summer. It was a freezing and windy …

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Engagement portrait with poodle sitting on the train tracks - Conway River Walk

Two engagement photography sessions at the Conway Riverwalk, one with a Poodle

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I like to do engagement sessions for my upcoming weddings during this slower time of the year. I recently had two sets of wedding clients that wanted to do engagement pictures at the Conway River Walk, so I combined photos from both their sessions into one post. I’m a little partial to the first set below because they had a poodle that looks almost like my dog Penny. Their poodle was a little nervous, especially up on the railroad track, just like my dog would be with the tail tucked down tight. The very last picture in the first set below …

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Leaning fiance back for a kiss at Broadway at the Beach in Myrtle Beach

Surprise engagement proposal at Broadway at the Beach in Myrtle Beach

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This was another surprise engagement proposal I was asked to photograph, this time at the Ripley’s Aquarium in Broadway at the Beach. I was contacted by the young guy to hopefully get some surprise pictures of the proposal to his girlfriend. It’s usually hard for the girl not to know something is up by the time I spot them.  I’ve done a number of these types of surprise proposals recently, they are always really fun to shoot, and so far, the girl has always said yes!  So maybe it’s a good idea to have me there :). I’ve been to …

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Putting on the engagement ring in front of the pier

Engagement pictures with an emotional marriage proposal on the beach

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I had another fun couple that hired me for their engagement pictures and a marriage proposal on the beach. This one was a bit different than my last couple of proposals because his girlfriend knew that he was going to propose. This made it a bit easier for me because I didn’t have to try and be sneaky with my pictures of the proposal.  I also got to set the position of the couple up a little bit so there wouldn’t be people in the background.  We started doing my typical style engagement pictures around the oak trees and sea …

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Couple laying together in the sand - Litchfield Beach

Engagement pictures at the Litchfield Golf and Beach Club

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I had the opportunity to do engagement pictures for this very nice couple staying at the Litchfield Golf and Beach Club. I’ve done weddings in this area before, but I’ve never been there for engagement pictures. I’m glad they suggested doing them there because it is a really pretty area. I knew some of the spots I liked out in front of the club from previous weddings, it’s always great when you can get some nice light coming through the leaves of oak trees. Using a really good lens blurs out the background sunlight in a really pretty way. The …

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High contrast black and white under the pier

Secret pictures of an engagement proposal again!

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I recently had another chance to do pictures of a wedding proposal along with engagement pictures after. This client saw my last blog post and wanted to do something similar, so I guess people do sometimes read my blog. Something cool about being a photographer is you can count all your camera gadgets as a business expense, which, if you are like me, is where a lot of money goes anyway. I mentioned before that I recently got a small Olympus OM-D mirrorless micro four-thirds camera, mainly to take hiking and for fun, but I’ve been able to incorporate it …

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Couple smiling at each other in front of the pier

Secret pictures of marriage proposal and engagement portraits after

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I got to do something fun last week, trying to do marriage proposal pictures without being noticed. The man’s family, including his daughter, were hiding by the dunes while we waited for him and his girlfriend to arrive at the beach. There are always a lot of photographers down at the state park, so it was pretty easy to blend in. I don’t think his girlfriend noticed me until after he proposed, so I thought I did a good job. Then they just took engagement pictures on the beach together. It was a lot of fun and easy to get …

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