Ed + Sumi

If you know me, you know I LOVE shooting proposals. So I was obviously stoked when Ed reached out to me back in December to have me capture his proposal. There were a few hiccups due to the pandemic and the second shutdown but we rescheduled and made it happen!

Ed and Sumi are local to the Bay Area so he already knew where he wanted to do it. Almost every proposal I’ve done thus far has been for couples visiting from out of state, so I was so excited to capture a proposal in a place close to their hearts. Ed wanted to pop the question at The Donum Estate because it’s their favorite winery. 

If you’ve never been to or heard of The Donum Estate, it’s a beautiful winery in Sonoma County with dozens of fun, large sculptures (and more coming)! I had never been but had driven by it many times – it’s on the outskirts of Sonoma County off a beautiful back road surrounded by vineyards. I was so excited to finally check it out! They offer ATV wine tours and take you all over the winery’s property to see all of the sculptures and it’s so much fun – I definitely recommend visiting if you haven’t.

Ed told me he wanted to propose in front of the giant heart sculpture so I went to go check it out to make a game plan for the big day. There wasn’t anywhere for me to hide so on the day of we had a staff member at Donum come up the hill with me to pretend we were part of the marketing team getting photos for content.. they didn’t suspect a thing!

The day before the proposal it was raining but we got so lucky and it was literally a picture perfect day with blue skies and perfect little white clouds. All went as planned and Sumi had no idea! I’m so glad I got to capture this moment for them and can’t wait to see where life takes them!

In case you haven’t heard enough wonderful things about this day, Ed left the nicest review about his experience –

“I don’t have enough great things to say about Becca. In the midst of planning a proposal in a pandemic, off the bat, she took time to get to know our story and what I was looking for versus other photographers I contacted sending me a canned response with a price sheet. Given the shelter in place restrictions, she was flexible in moving the date as well as going on her own time to scout out the location ahead of time for me, and planning her part of the surprise. She has the most cheerful demeanor, not to mention the most important part: the photos turned out amazing. I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend her to any of my friends.”

Photographer: @rebeccaskidgelphoto

Location: @donumestate