Steve and Katie get engaged!

Ok, so this is an engagement session, but it's a REAL engagement session. As in, these photos happened within minutes of Steve and Katie getting engaged. Steve is one of my best friends, and roommate from college. I've known him since 7th grade. He and my three other roommates have remained very close to me (45D!) after graduating, and we see each other pretty often still. When I heard that Steve was going to be popping the question, I knew I just HAD to head up to San Jose to capture it. Steve was stoked about that.
The awesome part is that Katie had a surprise birthday party planned for Steve the NIGHT BEFORE Steve was proposing. So I had the perfect excuse to come up and not have to be all sly: Steve's party! So I rented a car that got good gas mileage and drove up to San Jose, arriving 1 hour late for Steve's surprise party. I made excuses like, "the traffic was terrible" and "I severely underestimated the drive time" so that Katie wouldn't know that the REAL reason I had come up was Steve's proposal. We had a great time at Steve's party - it was up at a german restaurant with great food and even better beer, up in the Mount Hermon area near Santa Cruz. We then went to Capitola and smoked a cigar on the breakwall at the beach, and got to bed around 1 am.
I woke up at 6:15 the next morning to meet up with Steve's friend Gabe. We met and drove up to a lookout point that Steve would be proposing at. I thought that there would be a place for me to hide and take photos, but it turned out that the brush was very thick and we were having some trouble finding a spot. At 8:00 pm I got a text message from Steve that they were 30 minutes away, so we kept trying to figure out where we were going to hide.
At 8:15 I heard people coming up the trail, but assumed it wasn't Steve and Katie because Steve had said they were 30 minutes away only 15 minutes ago. But then I heard Steve say, "KEN?!"
Gabe and I rushed to hide, and Steve came up and proposed. It was an awesome proposal - Steve's a total stud. Turns out that Katie didn't even hear Steve when he said, "KEN?!" and was totally oblivious until she got to the lookout point and saw a blanket, guitar, and engagement ring box. :)
So Steve and Katie got engaged, and I couldn't be happier for them. About 15 minutes after popping the question, Steve gave Gabe and I the all-clear to come out, and I emerged with camera blazing. :) We then took a few photos on the way down.
Congrats Steve and Katie, Courtney and I are so stoked for you two. Thanks for letting me be a part of your day. We love you two.
The amazing Andre Niesing will be shooting their wedding - check out his stuff and send Andre some love!