Ring, Bended Knee, and Candid Camera

Husband hopefuls are lining up not only romantic locales and plentiful karats, but also hidden cameramen to document their marriage proposals. Some knee-benders are even timing their big events for optimal lighting conditions and bride-to-be beauty (make sure she gets to change her clothes after work). Newly affianced couples can send the snaps around the very next day, the Times reports.

Some photogs disguise themselves as tourists in public locations, while others just wait in dark restaurants for the telltale supplication; they generally let the happy pair celebrate in private, delivering the portraits later on. One happily married survivor of proposal photography remembers the event as “kind of a blur”; having the pictorial memory, she says, is “just so precious.” (More proposals stories.)