Maarij & Michelle's Surprise Proposal in Kyoto

Maarij proposed to Michelle beneath Yasaka Pagoda in Gion, Kyoto, on a rainy evening in March, the lantern-lit streets of Higashiyama and wet cobblestones setting the scene for one of the most romantic ways to say yes in the old city.

Gion holds centuries of wooden machiya, narrow stone lanes, and quiet shrines, and it doesn't need good weather to earn its reputation. If anything, the rain that evening did the district a favour: every lantern along the streets threw its glow onto the cobblestones, doubling the light, turning an already atmospheric corner of Kyoto into something closer to a dream.

Maarij had planned the whole thing in secret. He walked Michelle through Higashiyama as though it were simply an evening stroll, giving nothing away, until they reached the pagoda and he dropped to one knee. She had no idea. What followed was pure joy: umbrellas forgotten, rain and all, the kind of reaction you can't direct or ask for twice.

As a documentary-style wedding and elopement photographer based here in Japan, with a bilingual English and Japanese team and work featured in British Vogue, this is exactly the kind of moment I chase: not the posed version of a proposal, but the real one, rain-soaked and unrehearsed, in a district that's been holding stories like this for centuries.

Vendor credits‍

• Photography: Sofia Hiramatsu Photography

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If you're dreaming of the same

If you're picturing a proposal of your own somewhere as storied as Gion, I'd love to hear from you. For more on choosing a setting like this, take a look at our guide to the best places to elope in Japan.