Ed wanted me to photograph the proposal so he could give the pictures as a surprise gift to Julie at their engagement party, so I had to be totally stealth the entire time! I don' think Julie checks the blog so hopefully it still can be a surprise. We devised a plan to have Ed take Julie out to lunch at noon and then take a 'stroll' to the park around 1:00 PM. Ed called the St. Charles Park Department and they let me in a building they sometimes rent out to the public. I also rented out a Canon 300 f.28 IS at Schillers so I could get the shots from the building about 1,000 feet away or so. Any photographer knows that lens is a SAWEEEET piece of glass!

I got there early to look around and check out the place for a backup plan in case I couldn't get into the building. And if they got done eating early and I missed it that would suck! I photographed some birds while waiting to be let into the building.


 Our plan was for Ed to call me when they were done at the restaurant around 1 pm because it was about a 5-10 min walk to the park and that would give me a heads up. The lady at the parks department showed up at exactly 1:00 PM. I was sweating it! She went to unlock the door and the keys wouldn't work! I was like oh no!!!!! Thank God, Ed didn't call yet but he did finally call at 1:10 from the bathroom of the restaurant. ha-sneaky! I told him to try and stall because the lady had to go back to the office and get the right keys. And just then, the lady came walking up! Alright! She got the door open and just then a family of 10 sat right in front of the window where I was gonna photograph to have some lunch! ACK!! NO!! I've been siting there all day and no one! I had to walk back outside to politely told them to please not stand in the window. I saw Ed and Julie come walking toward me in the distance.