Planning A Wedding Proposal in PEC

Updated February 2024

Are you escaping the city for a weekend break? Staying in The County for a week or two? Let’s start your PEC surprise wedding proposal planning with how you want your stay in Prince Edward County to feel. Do you want to coast into the vacation and build to the proposal? Or start with the proposal and spend the rest of your stay celebrating your new engagement?

Choosing How to Propose

Where to Propose in Prince Edward County

Have you booked a boutique motel, like Angeline’s Inn, or an experience at Mirazule PEC? Check out this post if you haven't decided on your Prince Edward County Accommodations yet. Would you like to have chilled champagne ready? Or be out in a natural landscape? Here are some of our recommendations for where to propose in Prince Edward County:

Beaches

1. Sandbanks Dune Beach (pictured)
2. North Beach Provincial Park
3. Wellington Rotary Beach

You can find our local's guide to Prince Edward County Beaches here.

Natural Landscapes

1. Little Bluff Conservation Area
2. Point Petre (pictured)
3. Lake on the Mountain
4. Wildflower Fields

Private Lake-front Properties

1. Mirazule PEC
2. Wander the Resort
3. Lakeside Motel
4. The Drake Devonshire

Boutique Inns (tldr: stunning aesthetics indoors and outdoors)

1. Angeline’s Inn (pictured)
2. The June Motel
3. The Drake Motor Inn
4. The Brighthouse Farm

Views with a Beverage

1. Slake Brewing
2. The Old Third Winery
3. Karlo Estates Winery

You can find our guide to Prince Edward County breweries here, and our guide to Prince Edward County wineries here.

A Private Airbnb

1. The Blessington
2. The Edward
3. The Ell House

Backdrop for your Surprise Proposal in Prince Edward County

Within each of the above locations, you will have many options for backdrops. This is where working with a local Prince Edward County photographer is particularly helpful. We have shot at and/or scouted all of these locations and know where the light falls at different times of day/ different times of the year. We will send you some options ahead of your photography session so that you are familiar with the potential of the location you choose. For example, all six of these backdrops (below) would have worked for this surprise Prince Edward County proposal.

What Time of Day do you want to Propose?

We will always recommend sunrise or sunset for that soft golden light. Consider how private you’d like your proposal to be when deciding on the time of day. Typically at sunrise in The County, you can have almost any space to yourself. You will find a few more people around at sunset and then more still in the middle of the day. Also, consider the time of year. The same location could be crawling with people from June-September but virtually empty in May or October. 

Activities for your Surprise Proposal in Prince Edward County

Are you planning for a couple’s session turned surprise proposal or a brewery tour turned surprise proposal like this one? Are you hiking or taking a dip in the lake like this couple? All of these activities will require different apparel and/or hair and makeup. How do you and your partner want to look in your surprise proposal photographs?

How are you going to sell it to your partner?

This is a biggie. If you truly want this wedding proposal to be a surprise, how are you going to sell it to your significant other? You can read about how this content creator planned a Prince Edward County getaway as a cover story, and how we planned a craft brewery tour cover story for this couple. If you’d like some assistance with this aspect we are happy to get creative with you. Don’t forget to hide the ring (and consider how you’re going to have it on your person when the time is right)!

Planning for the emotional rollercoaster of your surprise propsal

A surprise proposal is not the same as a regular couple or engagement shoot. The partner who is doing the proposal is likely to feel all sorts of emotions leading up to the proposal. The partner who is being proposed to is going to feel all sorts of emotions during the proposal. It’s magic friend, but the magic that we want to plan for. It’s possible that you will feel a bit nervous before you propose. This may even impact where you end up proposing. We will go over this during our consultation, but essentially we will plan for a couple of backdrops within your chosen location so that if we shoot at backdrop option one and you’re not quite ready, we can follow your lead and try backdrop two, etc.

Timing the proposal within your photography session

Typically we recommend proposing within the first 15 minutes or so of your session. We are NOT going to make you propose within this window but from our experience, the session is most enjoyable when you propose early and then get to spend 45 minutes or so loving on your new fiance! 

Building your Prince Edward County Wedding Proposal Team

You can work with us to plan and execute a perfect surprise Prince Edward County proposal. You can also choose to bring in a wedding planner if you’d prefer not to handle the details, or if you’d like a stylized backdrop or meal afterward (think a floral display or private picnic on the beach). We are happy to recommend some brilliant Prince Edward County Wedding Planners and Florists for this role. 

For more information on Surprise Wedding Proposals check out this post on Wandering Weddings.