Romantic Proposal in a Sunflower field in Japan

In mid August 2024, I was contacted by a young man from Israël looking to propose to his girlfriend. He was looking for a place full of flowers, especially sunflowers, as it is one of her favorite flowers. After some research and discussion, we settled on Yamanakako Hana no Miyako Park.

Scouting the area

I had shot several times in that park prior to this proposal. However, as the sunflowers are set to bloom in very specific dates, I wanted to make sure that they would bloom on the date of the proposal. As I had to go in the area about a week before, I took the opportunity to scout the park and some questions to the staff taking care of it. They did let me know that there should be no problem for sunflowers and that they should bloom by the day of the proposal. So we had a date, sunflowers and now it was just about getting there on the proposal date.

The proposal

On the day of the proposal, I arrived there about 40min in advance. That gave me some time to do some small scouting, setup my gear and just take some time to wait for them. I always try to arrive in advance because I just don’t enjoy being in a rush, and sometimes things happen… better be safe than sorry.

I always ask my client to share their live location on the day, as well as a picture of them and their partner, to make sure that I don’t have any issue spotting the client and getting ready for the special moment. I continuously checked their position and when they arrived, I just pretended to take pictures of the sunflowers. He then starting to propose to her, and I captured myself accordingly to capture this moment.

And it was great. The proposal went according to plan, full of emotion. I always keep my distance at first, as I want the couple to enjoy their time, enjoy the moment, as it is once in a lifetime kind of moment. Once the emotions went down a bit, I approached them and we continued taking pictures and moving around Yamanakako Hana no Miyako Park to take more portraits and capture their emotions and love story.

If you are looking to propose, elope or get married in Japan, feel free to contact me. I will be happy to help you plan and capture your special moment.