Suhail & Thelma's Surprise Proposal at Park Hyatt Kyoto
Suhail proposed to Thelma on the rooftop terrace of Park Hyatt Kyoto on the 15th of April, 2026, with the Yasaka Pagoda rising over the tiled rooftops of Higashiyama and rain falling steadily the entire morning.
Suhail had written to me months earlier with the plan already forming: he wanted a proposal that captured the two of them the way my work does, and he wanted it to happen somewhere that already meant something. Japan, he told me, was Thelma's favourite place in the world, the destination she returned to in every conversation about where she'd go if she could go anywhere. So instead of planning a holiday, he planned a beginning.
I've been photographing couples across Japan and the UK since 2014, docu-editorial in style, shooting both film and digital with a bilingual English and Japanese team, and I've had the privilege of having that work featured in British Vogue. A surprise proposal is its own kind of shoot: no rehearsal, no second take, just the two of them and whatever the morning decides to do. That morning, it decided on rain, and none of us minded. Suhail and Thelma stepped out onto the terrace under clear umbrellas, the pagoda and the hillside rooftops soft behind the drizzle, and he got down on one knee before she'd fully registered what was happening. The half second after is the one I always hope to catch and can never direct: her hand at her mouth, his hand steady on the ring box, the rain not stopping for either of them.
Afterward there was a bouquet of deep red roses waiting, and the two of them barely noticed the weather at all. We wandered the hotel's own Higashiyama garden next, down mossy stone steps past a stone lantern and a quiet cascade, their umbrellas up and their hands never quite letting go of each other. We ended beneath the eaves of a traditional wooden building on the property, its dark timber and tiled roof a contrast to the terrace they'd started on, Thelma still turning the ring on her finger, both of them laughing at how thoroughly Kyoto had soaked through their plans and improved on them anyway.
Vendor credits
Photography: Sofia Hiramatsu Photography
If you're dreaming of the same
Suhail already knew what he wanted to give Thelma before he ever called me: not just a trip to her favourite country, but a reason to belong to it differently from now on.
If you're planning a proposal or elopement of your own in Kyoto, I'd love to hear from you. Inquire here, or read more on planning a Kyoto engagement or wedding and the best time of year to marry in Japan.