In this blog post, you’ll know what are the ingredients for a successful marriage proposal and how to do it best possible way in Madeira. The key factors are good preparation and planning stage, precise plan to follow on site and reliable team to execute it. If you have chosen Madeira as a place for your engagement, we are ready to share all the experience with you. We’ll guide you through it to organize your proposal the way you dream about. 

marriage engagement proposal photo shoot in Madeira
Marriage proposal at Pico do Arieiro, Madeira Island

1. Preparation and planning of a marriage proposal

Madeira and its natural beauties attract the attention of those wishing to make a marriage proposal, and not to be refused, of course. However, to make your proposal special it is necessary to spend some time planning it. From our experience the more time we spend on preparation, the less “imperfections” remain in the time of proposal.

marriage proposal in Madeira
Engagement photo session in São Lourenço, Madeira Island

What we do and how we do it to help organize engagement in Madeira the best way

We can participate in two ways in the process.

The first – we do everything hiddenly: we shoot from afar, because of obstacles, shelters. This option is fraught with certain risks such as disorganization on the spot, or the inability to influence the process of a marriage proposal, the risk of capturing everything from the wrong angle (due to secret shooting).

marriage proposal on sunrise in Madeira
High above the cloud sunrise was perfect to propose

In this case, of course, we first tell you where to stand, where to look and how to turn in order to take the most advantageous position. This method is suitable for very suspicious or shy soul mates. If your partner does not belong to them, then feel free to suggest the second option.

The Second – we do everything pretending we do a photoshoot that you ordered for her as a gift. We meet, go to the first shooting point, then to the second, take a couple of pictures here and there. It looks like we do not know about the proposal.

future bride shows a proposal ring
She said yes to him

What happens next? We agree that when the photographer begins to lay out the tripod and launch the drone, the time has come to make a marriage proposal. We work with the couple as well as before, only now we are also writing videos. The girl does not know anything until you kneel down and propose her. We take photos and videos from 2 angles: a drone on top and a camera from a tripod. This option is more predictable from the point of view of the result – we can always intervene and adjust the work according to the situation.

General organizational issues

Location is important. Your memories and the beauty of what is happening will depend on how we select a place. High cliffs and rocky mountains are not suitable for everyone. Many will just be scared to be there, not to listen to the marriage proposal. Many vice versa – you need adrenaline for the background and without it will be “fresh”. So we will select a place “for you.” By the way, some beautiful places “work” in the summer, but very ugly or inaccessible in the winter. Moreover, this issue also needs to be taken into account when planning, and we will talk about this later.

The right time

There is nothing sadder than coming to a beautiful place (from someone’s photos) and discovering that sunrise/sunset is hidden behind the mountain at this time of year, for example. Either the place itself does not look like the one in the photo, because the foliage flew around and the bare trees look sparse, or the tide blocked access to the beautiful rock on the beach. We have been living on the island for almost 5 years, and such small tricks have already been learned. We know where the sun will be at dawn and at sunset. And we know where it will be very beautiful and unusual in cloudy weather.

Equipment

We have in our arsenal professional mirrorless and SLR cameras, drones of the latest generation and professional staff capable of working with this equipment.

Directing

You need to build a little sequence of common actions and discuss it in advance so that everything is smooth and impressive. We will help with the orientation on the spot, we will help with the best choice of time and tell you how to do everything most effectively.

marriage proposal photo session in Madeira
Diamonds are the best girls’ friends

Next part – we need to write down the detailed plan of your marriage proposal in Madeira.

2. Write down a detailed plan of a marriage proposal

When we discussed your preferences, location and the best time for the marriage proposal, it is time for writing the plan down. There are many reasons why we should do it.

The most important reason for keeping it written is our memory. Usually, we plan to propose well in advance and when the time comes, we forget about details. We keep the main points of plan in mind, but we miss some important details of performance on the spot. At the very first photo sessions of a marriage proposal, we just talked about the roles of each one involved in the process. However, on site, we have noticed a lack of coordination between a client and us.

Marriage/engagement proposal in Madeira
Places in Madeira like this one are designed for marriage proposal

What we started doing was writing every stage of marriage proposal down and providing a client with a detailed plan. This small feature increased coordination on site drastically. 

Another reason keeping the plan written is the responsibility of each side. Everyone involved knows what to do, where and when. If you did not follow the plan, the only one responsible for it is you.

Now when it is obvious enough why we need a marriage proposal plan to be written, let’s jump to the last important stage of the preparation – the team. 

3. Choose experienced team

We were not experienced from the very first marriage proposal we shot in Madeira. Nevertheless, we became ones. Three years ago, we shot our first marriage proposal in Madeira. It was a couple from Poland: Pavel and Kasia. Everything went not the way we planned but eventually turned out well.

When Pavel mailed us with his idea to propose at one of the highest mountain tops of Madeira, we said ‘yes’ immediately. After we mailed Pavel with possible options and he mailed us back 37 times. We spent a lot of time grinding the details, polishing every second at the chosen place. What we could not see at that time were unpredictable weather conditions on Arieiro mountain top (1818 meters above sea level, around +5 C at the time).

Happy girl after a proposal
Happy girl wearing proposal ring

The first time we scheduled Pavel’s marriage proposal, there was a wind gust of 100-120 km/hour at Pico do Arieiro viewpoint. It was hidden filming with the drone involved. I started doubting doing Pavel’s engagement photoshoot when the wind helped to open the door in my car. And then it helped to close it. However, I thought that we agreed to do the shooting today, let’s stick to the plan.

The second time I regretted we did not postpone it was on the way to the discussed spot. The wind was so strong that I could barely crawl towards the point of filming. At that time I already used to the idea that drone is not going to help us with filming that morning.

In a few minutes after, I got a message from Pavel saying that the wind almost cut their heads on the way to the spot. I gave up and decided to postpone the well-organized marriage proposal for the next time. The next time Pavel made his proposal in the wrong place (wrong spot) and in the wrong time (earlier than expected). I do not know how we managed to capture the moment itself as well as their emotions.

Summary of this story is simple: when choosing a team to perform your marriage proposal photoshoot, try not to be so serious. A well-written plan might fail. Even though we have a lot of experience in the marriage proposal shooting field, we still feel that everything can go wrong. However, we’ll do our best to capture your engagement and keep the memories with you.


More in our blog – eloping and destination weddings in Madeira:

Eloping to Madeira: 5 Things to Know for a Memorable Photo Session of Your Wedding

Destination Wedding in Madeira

Photo Session of a Civil Wedding in Madeira


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