Tucked deep inside Daigoji Temple in Kyoto, there is a quiet hall called Bentendo that most tourists never find their way to. It sits a fair distance from the city centre, so even most Japanese visitors only stop by once in a while. It is the kind of place where you can stand by the pond, hear nothing but birds, and feel like the world has slowed down — exactly the kind of place you want to be when you are about to propose.
This couple and I had chosen Bentendo for exactly that reason. He had quietly scouted the area himself before reaching out to me, and the two of us worked out the morning together — he would naturally lead her toward Bentendo, and from there, I would step in.
When they arrived, the hall really was completely empty. There was no one else around at all. As planned, I walked up as a tourist and asked if they could take a photo of me. The conversation flowed so easily that, when I offered to take a photo of the two of them in return, she had no idea what was about to happen.
When my signal came, he turned to her and asked. The whole moment had this quiet, almost held-breath kind of feeling to it — just the two of them, the pond behind them, and a stillness around us that I could not have planned for. She was completely surprised, and the way her happiness came through, soft and genuine, was something I will not forget any time soon.
After we spent a few quiet minutes there, we kept walking through Daigoji and shooting at the other beautiful spots inside its grounds. The temple grounds are full of small surprises — old gates, stone paths through the trees, little bridges — and at every place we stopped, they were so easy to work with. They threw out their own ideas, I shared mine, and we just kept building on each other through the whole hour. It really did fly by.
Thank you both for trusting me with such an important morning, and for being so much fun to work with along the way. Congratulations — I am so happy for you, and I hope life brings you back to Japan again sometime soon.
If you are dreaming up a surprise proposal somewhere quiet and beautiful in Kyoto, the details on my Kyoto proposal packages are over here.
