Anand & Lina’s Cal Academy Surprise Proposal on the Living Roof

Having photographed hundreds of surprise proposals in the Bay Area, it’s always a special kind of joy to witness a proposal with the amount of planning, preparation, and practice that Anand put into his engagement to Lina. He had been secretly working on this for months, with an array of moving parts that all came together like clockwork, culminating in a beautiful, romantic, and touching proposal on the Living Roof at the California Academy of Sciences.

Upon arriving at the museum early Saturday morning, Anand and Lina and their friends Onkur and Nicole were greeted by the museum staff, who of course were in on the surprise — under the guise of granting them early morning access through a special pass, they showed the couple around the museum and brought them up to the rooftop, where Anand had already arranged for family & friends (most of whom had flown in from out of town!) to set up decorations for the event.

Once on the rooftop, Anand gave one of the most artfully-written and well-practiced speeches I’ve ever heard — I’d be hard-pressed to awkwardly stutter my way through even one-tenth of what he said — and afterwards, all the friends and family who had been hiding walked up one by one to surprise Lina and to congratulate the newly-engaged couple. I’m super glad we got this all on video for them to relive the moment again and again. Check out some photos and a short highlight reel of their Cal Academy surprise proposal below!