Destination Proposal and Engagement in Amsterdam — Pam Jeanne Photography

The story of how this proposal and engagement session in Amsterdam came to be still blows my mind to this day (nearly 4 months later!). I was on the last two days of my 2.5 week Europe trip in December 2023 when Andrew reached out to me asking if I had availability to be BACK in Europe in January (i.e. in about a month’s time). Where exactly in Europe… we weren’t sure yet. As we worked out the dates that I could be there, it turned out that it would have to be in Amsterdam based on their travel itinerary, which was serendipitous since it was a special place to Alex having spent some years of her childhood there.

At the time when Andrew reached out, I was about to travel to SE Asia and Australia to visit family for the holidays, and hadn’t planned to be back in Los Angeles till after the New Year. In order to make this happen, I would have had to travel back to LA from SE Asia on my planned date of Jan 3 to pick up my gear, then turn right back around in a day to fly back to Europe. If this confuses you, I understand. It was hard for me to wrap my own head around too. Bottomline — it was an insane few weeks of travel (hopping across 4 different continents in 7 weeks), and a large part of me wasn’t sure if I could actually make this work… but as it turns out, everything went according to plan. And I’m so glad I said yes.

I arrived a couple days ahead of the planned date to scout the city for potential spots for the proposal. How do you find a private/quiet corner in a busy city like Amsterdam? Should we perhaps look at areas outside the city? I had never visited Amsterdam before, and while we did research into potential areas, none of them worked out since they were mostly tourist attractions with floods of people. So, boots on the ground, I scoured the different neighborhoods of the city, and chanced upon a dock in a quieter residential neighborhood that I felt would be perfect for the moment.

The whole thing was surreal. Everything went off without a hitch and felt like a dream. Exploring the streets of Amsterdam with A & A was so fun (albeit cold!), and I’m so excited about everything we created. I am eternally grateful for this opportunity to celebrate this milestone in their relationship in such a special place :’)

>> See a photo from their engagement session that won Junebug Weddings’ Best of the Best 2024 Engagement Photos!