Fall Colors Picnic Style ProposalProposal Details:

There are moments in life that feel like they’ve been painted just for you which are perfect for your marriage proposal — the air crisp, the colors alive, and time itself standing still. For these two, that moment unfolded at Twin Lakes right at the peak of the fall colors. It started as a weekend getaway with friends — just one of those cozy autumn trips to the mountains to breathe in the cool air and watch the aspens turn gold. She had no idea that everyone else in the group was in on something far bigger. She thought it was a night out with friends but what she didn’t know was that they were walking into the dreamiest lakeside scene imaginable.

At a spot off the lake with the mountain peaks towering behind and the aspen trees glowing in every direction, a private picnic awaited: a rustic table surrounded by soft pillows, candles, and a cozy blanket beneath a tent canopy. A chilled bottle of bubbly waited, ready to be popped at just the right moment.

The women came to where the guys were— and that’s when the surprise began. Blindfolded, she was guided down the short trail, her friends trying to hold back smiles and excitement. When she finally reached the spot, she felt the cool mountain breeze, the faint sound of water lapping the shore, and his hand taking hers. When the blindfold came off her eyes filled with joy at what was happening. Before her stood the man she loved, surrounded by golden aspens and mountains reflected perfectly in the lake. He smiled, led her to the spot, took a deep breath, and dropped to one knee.

In that quiet mountain moment, everything else faded away. She said “yes” and their friends cheered from a distance — capturing the joy, laughter, and disbelief that it was all real. It was the kind of proposal you dream about — heartfelt, beautifully planned, and surrounded by the magic of Colorado fall.

Proposal Setup Backstory, Perks + Drawbacks:

You might see the photos and think as a guy – Sweet let’s do that! What is going on in guys minds is that they just want a blanket and well a few pillows.  Oh and well a table.  Wait also some candles [Which you cannot lite in Colorado]. . . and well we likely need plates, maybe some flowers.  Even with all that as a guy we are going to think it will be like $100 bucks and 15 minutes.  What we have seen is that it is basically the opposite.  This setup took two people 90 minutes and had hundreds of dollars of materials some of which were bought for this event it seems as they were new out of the box.  This required someone to drive 3 hours one way, drag the stuff in multiple trips to a spot, setup – then wait.  There was a photoshoot, people enjoying the spot as it got dark.  They then needed to take this down in the dark and drag it back before driving 3 more hours back.  We once did something like this and it was 3 moving boxes and about 100 pounds of stuff.

They got someone to do this because they had just lost their job and needed money – not because it was feasible as an actual business.  The total effort to do a setup was quite a lot for this person and the reality is that once they get another job they will not really have a lot of bandwidth to keep doing this as the profit margin is very low for the true level of effort.  Its about results for a price and while I think they got a deal I find most guys abandon the idea once they start seeing the $ figures attached.

The perks are well that you get something like what she saw on Instagram.  It fits a story she wanted and so it is quite ideal.  The question we always ask ourselves is if the perks outweigh the drawbacks.  To illustrate, the fact that the women and the guys split up was likely a little telling.  When she was then blindfolded and led on a couple minute walk that took 15+ would have given it away.  There was then the moment when the blindfold came off and there was the reaction.  What we have found is that it can downplay the reaction to the proposal moment itself. Having a group there and something setup also make it so that the emotions get less intense for the proposal itself.  I guess one way to say it is the proposal becomes less about the proposal and more about the look – the stuff.  The emotion we normally get is 8-10 out of 10.  In this scenario it is like a 3-5 of out 10.  It depends on the woman but it is a big difference.  Another way to illustrate it would be to say look at the collective emotion in this proposal vs others on our blog.  The emotion is so much more / more photos to show it when she does not know her photo is being taken and its a true surprise.

We LOVE proposals – the candid raw emotion is a big reason why.  While we think there is a solid place for setting things up we have seen it create a lot of undue pressure on guys.  They already have enough figuring out where and when to propose.  Even getting down what they will say is a lot [most guys blank in the nerves of the moment].  We will go with your desires for the proposal but just want to note that we have not gone this route as a business because the level of effort to amount of work (communication up front, customization, material cost, and setup/teardown) is underestimated cause we are guys.  What we find is the best sweet spot would be you and maybe another couple break off from the group then having the friends do the setup.  The other would be to have us carry out something special for you to set at the spot.  We can do a one handed carry of something you mail to us without cost.  The main idea is something like a book of pictures.

You can get proposal ideas from reading past blogs and read about how we do proposals on our engagement proposals page. Please note that this one was at a completely different spot than normal which prevents being hidden and had some hiking of a feel. If you like what you see here and are considering using one of the Twin Lakes locations here are some of the other shoots we have done at Twin Lakes. If you are looking for something with Fall Colors there are the shoots with that look.