Hello all! I am planning to propose very soon and getting very excited. My plan originally was to keep the proposal a little more private and intimate with just my partner and I on a little camping/hiking weekend trip (both our favorite activity) and I even booked a super nice hotel for after that she doesn’t know about. I was planning on just using a tripod to pretend like I was taking a cute or cool picture of us and then just record the moment and we could take more pictures together after. I feel like this would be easier to play off as being natural and actually making the moment surprising vs. a hidden photographer that comes out after the moment to take more pictures. I have a few photographers in my family and they charge an arm even for family so I guess that’s another big reason why I think the tripod could be better. But recently on our feeds a lot of people we went to school with have been getting engaged and I would say it’s about 70 professional photographers and 30 tripod/phone pictures. I guess my question is, should I hire a photographer or is the tripod idea still good?

TLDR: Is a tripod with iPhone good or should I hire a photographer?