A Proposal-Turned-Engagement-Session in New Orleans

Marissa and Taylor explore the gardens of Longue Vue House.

This is a story of the New Orleans Surprise Proposal Photography that wasn’t.

That sounds bad, doesn’t it? It’s not bad, I promise! The proposal still happened I just wasn’t there to witness it! I’m getting ahead of myself. Let me start back at the beginning.

Sometime at the end of 2022 (girl, don’t get me started. I am SO behind on blogging) I started helping Taylor plan his proposal to Marissa. Marissa grew up near New Orleans and it’s a place she and Taylor frequently visit. It was an obvious choice for a proposal since it’s a city that not only means something to Marissa but he was already familiar with the gorgeous locations it has to offer.

Taylor’s idea was to book a tour of one of New Orleans’ historic mansions and when it was over have a proposal staged outside for him to lead Marissa to. I had never done a proposal like that before and y’all know I’m always down to try something new! He really wanted to do it near City Park but there are only so many tourable mansions down there. He wasn’t married to that location but I gave it priority during my search.

I ran into several obstacles when trying to find a location for this unique proposal. The first was the initial thought that came to mind when I first hear Taylor’s idea: many (if not all) of the historic mansions in New Orleans used slave labor once upon a time. A common thing you’ll see in the French Quarter is a detached building in the rear of a large house that has a number of very small apartments in it. They actually refer to these buildings as “slaves’ quarters” because that is exactly what they were originally.

Trying to find a location in New Orleans that didn’t house or utilize slaves at some point is actually really difficult. This city is 300 years old. So much of it was built on the backs of enslaved people. But the thing I was specifically trying to avoid was a house that discussed slavery during it’s tour. Or, worse, whitewashed it and called them “servants”. Not because I don’t think discussing slavery on a tour of an historic home is important. I do. Very much so (in fact, if you want to take an incredible tour, visit the Whitney Plantation which is actually a slavery museum. It is heart wrenching and very moving). But it doesn’t exactly cultimate romantic feelings.

So I set out to find a house that was built after 1865 AND offered a tour AND had pretty grounds for a proposal AND fit in the client’s budget. Whew. That was a bit of a tall order. But have you ever known me to shy away from a challenge? NOPE.

After calling and emailing a number of places that fit the bill, I ended up with four options to offer Taylor. The range in prices on renting a venue for a single hour was wild. Folks wanted anywhere from $500 to $2000! Once Taylor settled on the place he thought would be best, I did a bit of negotiating with the venue to get a rate that was closer to his desired budget. The venue went for it and we scheduled our planning call.

The place Taylor decided on was the Derbes Mansion, previously known as the Benachi House. I’ve wanted to photograph there for years but it hasn’t panned out. I was even booked on a wedding there that ended up downsizing to an elopement and doing it in the park instead. Since that wedding, though, Benachi was purchased by two owners of other old-building-turned-wedding-venues in New Orleans. And it turned out that I had worked with one of them on a proposal once before! I was happy to work with him again and finally get a chance to shoot at this beautiful house.

The proposal was supposed to happen on January 15th, 2023. We had our planning call scheduled for 1/3. But on 12/31, Taylor and Marissa spontaneously came to New Orleans for New Years and the perfect moment called out to him. While standing on top of the Four Seasons watching fireworks over the river at the stroke of midnight, Taylor took a knee and asked Marissa to be his wife.

I mean… yeah. I’da done that too!

So when I got on the video call with Taylor, I got to meet Marissa too! She said the proposal was absolutely perfect which made me really happy even if it wasn’t the one we had been planning for her. So instead of a proposal with an engagement session afterwards, we were just going to do the engagement session! And now Marissa got to help pick the venue, too.

I showed her the options I found and she was drawn to Longue Vue House and Gardens. Taylor and I had looked into there as a potential proposal venue but the time slots they allow proposals during were too limited for what he wanted to accomplish. But since we weren’t staging a proposal, our timing was more flexible and we could get in there on a Sunday afternoon when it is actually closed to the public!

I may not have gotten to photograph at Derbes (again!) but I was getting to shoot somewhere else I’d wanted to for a long time.

I met Taylor and Marissa at the gate and we were greeted by a really sweet groundskeeper who gave us the rundown. We only had an hour to work with and there are many acres of gardens to explore. So they jumped in the car with my assistant and me and we got to it!

Another thing that was brand new was my cameras! I had just upgraded my two Canon 5d MKIVs for two Canon mirrorless cameras. I was, admittedly, still getting used to the new interface (I got a bone to pick with you about that, Canon) so I wish we would have had a bit more time to roam around since I felt like I spent a lot of time fiddling with settings. But honestly, it was probably all in my head. I just normally move at such a lightning speed! We got a TON of great shots (and we hid a bit so we could stay a little longer than an hour hehe).

The only downside was that there was a hard freeze in December that killed a lot of the plants. So what was normally a lush garden was a little lackluster in places. While it lacked blooms it was still beautiful. Although, I really could’ve put that couple anywhere and they would have looked great! They are not only a good looking couple but they were easy to pose and work with. Taylor kept Marissa laughing and she had the most beautiful smile (complete with an adorable dimple!).

This was the first engagement session of not only my new cameras but of 2023 and I really started the year out on a high note. Without further adieu, here are Taylor and Marissa’s Surprise Proposal Engagement Photos.

Want to plan your own proposal or engagement session?