Proposal at Doug Sahm Hill | Chad + Kat's

Updated: Apr 8, 2022

Chad & Kat's proposal story at Doug Sahm Hill in Austin, Texas

doug sahm hill downtown austin proposal. couple kisses while newly engaged bride shows the camera her left hand to show off her engagement ring. austin skyline in background.

Chad reached out about two weeks before he proposed to Kat and asked me to photograph his proposal. They were driving to Austin from Houston for Kat's birthday and he wanted to surprise her with a proposal somewhere iconic to Austin.

We brainstormed together for the perfect place. I sent him photos from previous Austin proposals and we mulled over doing it on the Lady Bird Boardwalk, The Long Center, at the Austin Capitol Building, or at Doug Sahm Hill.

As the planning progressed his idea kept getting bigger and he talked about renting out space on a roof of a bar to have the city in the background, hiring a musician to play their song, or to get rose petals to put on the ground. It was SO romantic and you can bet I was straight "awww!"ing at my inbox every time he suggested a new element.

In the end we decided on Doug Sahm Hill for the view and he did end up hiring a local musician to play their song! Jeremy McBee played "Beautiful Crazy" by Luke Combs on his guitar as Chad and Kat arrived to the top of the hill. Kat saw me with my camera and thought that I was there to take photos of Jeremy, so she had no idea I was there to photograph them! When we asked if she realized Jeremy was playing "their song" she thought it was just a coincidence!!!

Sometimes Doug Sahm Hill and be crowded with pedestrians but we were so lucky that this day it was totally empty. A few people did come up and we told them what was about to happen and they were more than gracious to stay out of the scene. A few ladies even stuck around for over half an hour just to watch the scene unfold!!

These two are SO sweet and I am so grateful I was able to capture this part of their story! Check out the proposal photos below and watch the YouTube video I go on my phone of the full proposal happening!