You know those moments that make you sit back and think, “Oh my god… love IS real. And maybe humanity ISN’T completely doomed”? The same kind of moments where every detail feels like destiny— as if the universe itself signed off on them? 

Campbell and Claudia could teach a masterclass in making those moments, with a side course on making strangers on the internet ugly-cry.

If you remember the Frist proposal back in March—yeah, that one— then you know that Campbell proposed to Claudia with more intention in her left pinkie toe than most people have in their whole bodies. Needless to say, the bar was somewhere near Jupiter. 

The only logical solution for Claudia’s proposal back to Campbell? New York. Because, as Claudia so eloquently put it: “It has to be New York. She deserves New York.” 

(I mean, who argues with that?)

Just like that, I had a plane ticket from Nashville to NYC in hand, cameras in carry-ons, and zero chill.

If you also want to make strangers on the internet cry over your love story, here’s the exact, scientifically unreplicable method, as illustrated by Claudia and Campbell.

Step 1: Plan for Nothing Less than Epic (But Don’t Smother the Magic, Either)

Claudia approached her New York City wedding proposal the exact way Campbell approached hers— with obsessive love and precise intention. 

She wanted to echo the Frist proposal, to mirror the care and gesture Campbell had poured into it.

Every choice held meaning: dropping to her knee in front of the Angel of the Waters sculpture at Bethesda Terrace (pause: created by a queer sculptor and the first public art in NYC by a woman—feel that cosmic alignment?); the way she wrote her vows down on a piece of paper so they could read them quietly together; and somehow making grand architecture feel like the smallest part of the story.

Planning the memory doesn’t mean controlling every moment, though. It means protecting the space for raw, lighting-in-a-bottle emotion. Just like at the Frist, I was nothing more than a quiet observer of miracles, snapping away like a paparazzo for the universe’s most magical couple.

Step 2: Be Totally Natural…Even If You’re Kneeling in the Middle of Central Park

This is where most proposal photography collapses under the weight of expectation. Not for these two.

Claudia didn’t over-direct. Campbell didn’t overthink.

They walked, held hands, kissed fingers, made out like everyone’s favorite indie movie scene, and I just followed quietly (read: ugly-sobbed into my hands at every other crosswalk like any responsible adult would).

We wandered Bethesda Terrace and Manhattan streets, and every corner, every glance up at the sun-grazed skyline became part of their story.

Step 3: Smoke a Joint in the Middle of the Street Because Why Not

I mean, what do you have to lose? You’re already proposing in the most romantic city in the world. Might as well embrace the spontaneity. 

The smoke became part of the frame, part of the vibe, part of the literal art installation that is Claudia and Campbell’s love for each other. Romantic wedding proposal ideas don’t have to be elaborate. 

Case in point: sometimes they’re as simple as street-legal, photogenic clouds of sheer magic.

Step 4: Write a Letter That Will Ruin (Both Of) You Forever

Claudia wrote out exactly what she wanted to say to Campbell, just like Campbell had done for her months earlier in Nashville. Then they read them together in a quiet park after the “yes.”

Parallels to the Frist? Impossible to ignore. (No, seriously, don’t ignore them. Go find each and every one of them, like the world’s best game of Where’s Waldo.)

Combine intentional planning, mirrored gestures, and raw emotion— and you get a freight train of feels that will derail your ability to function like a normal human. Speaking from experience.

Step 5: Trust Everything (Including Your Photographer, Your Partner, and Possibly the Universe)

This is the secret sauce. Claudia trusted Campbell to feel every heartbeat of intention. Campbell trusted Claudia to knock her proposal out of Central Park. And they both trusted me to not ruin a single frame of human history.

Trust is what lets a moment become art. It’s what lets your love story feel bigger than the streets, than the skyline, than this whole spinning beach ball in the sky we call Earth.

Step 6: Leave Space Between the Proposal and the Engagement Photoshoot

For the love of all that is good: please don’t jump straight from “holy shit, I’m engaged!” into a photoshoot. Let the euphoria settle. Let your lungs fill with disbelief that forever is a sure thing. Grab some oysters and chardonnay for cinematic effect. Show your ring to any pedestrian who will spare a second.

Claudia and Campbell gave themselves a full day of pure, unstructured joy before we even thought about picking up the camera again. By afternoon, when we wandered the streets, crossed the bridges, and laughed on the riverbank, everything felt easy and effortless.

Step 7: Make Every Moment a Testament to How Humanity Can Be This Good

From Nashville to New York, from the Frist to the Manhattan skyline, Claudia and Campbell prove one thing: love this big is enough to restore faith in humanity.

Handwritten vows, twirls on the sidewalk, a joint-induced haze, crowded subway corridors, letters read in a park, laughter spilling over the East River— those are the things that make you believe in something good when the world feels like it’s a little bit on fire.

And that, my friends, is how you make strangers on the internet ugly-cry over your New York City wedding proposal.

The universe can orchestrate a little magic, but love this profound? There’s no luck involved. Claudia and Campbell have found each other in every lifetime, and I’m so honored to have documented them in this one.