With a lot of behind the scenes help from family and friends we were able to pull it all off! Michael decided to propose at The Ocean Club, which has basically no place for me to hide on the open beach in October! Lisa would easily have recognized me with my camera since she always sees me taking pictures at the Pat Agresti Memorial Foundation Softball Game (Michael is Pat’s son). So I hid in the restaurant area and shot the actual proposal from far out but still got what I needed. Lisa was so surprised and happy!! Her friends and family put together a bag of clothing options, makeup, hair products for her to change into after thinking she was going down to the beach to “clean out the cabana” so we could move right into an engagement session on the beach. And there was a bag of props (sign, champagne, etc) from Michael’s mom. Pretty brilliant!!  After shooting with me they went to a surprise (well, surprise for Lisa) engagement party at a local beach restaurant. So a pretty exciting day all in all! And great, great job by Michael on a beautiful ring, choosing a beautiful inside and out fiance and pulling it all off! (there was a LOT of wind, you can even see the blowing sand by their feet & legs in the proposal pictures, but we made do). Wishing Michael & Lisa a lifetime of happiness and good surprises!

If you follow along,  I hope you’ll remember Samantha & Darren from their engagment party a few months ago. Well, here’s their engagement shoot taken at Jones Beach as it’s a very special place for them. It’s actually where they got engaged too!