A Moray photographer has helped capture a Canadian couple’s dream proposal in Craigellachie.
Nikki Morgan, founder of Fledgling Photography in Elgin, helped to make the couple’s proposal in the Speyside village picture-perfect last month.
Vishal Sawlani contacted Nikki over email to ask if she had any availability to take pictures while he asked his girlfriend, Nicheta Bhatia (nicknamed Nia), to marry him.
Despite her diary being full, the two were able to negotiate a time when she would be available for the special moment under the Old Craigellachie Bridge.
Five weeks before the big day, planning began and the two of them were eager to make the proposal perfect – all without Nia knowing a thing about it.
Nikki said: “Me and Vishal had a FaceTime call and he had to do it while he was at work in his office so Nia wasn’t there.
“He was so tech-savvy to the point where he was able to get on the bridge from Google Maps and show me right from there where he wanted to propose.”
The couple, who are used to doing a lot of travelling, had planned a visit to do some distillery tours in the area.
They visited Glenfiddich Distillery before making the trip to Old Craigellachie Bridge.
The pair were able to make their own blend at the end of the distillery tour which the couple held in photographs after the proposal.
An anxious wait for the proposal
The proposal was the first time Nikki had photographed people who were travelling from another country. It was also only her second time taking pictures of a proposal.
“I photograph weddings all the time and obviously that comes with an element of nerve because it’s obviously somebody’s big day and you don’t want to mess anything up or miss anything,” she said.
“But this was really nerve-wracking because it was just one moment and if I missed it then I missed it.”
On the day, Nikki had to secretly make her way to the river while pretending to take pictures of the wildlife.
As soon as she was in place, Vishal went down on one knee and popped the question to Nia.
After she accepted the proposal, it was finally revealed to her that Nikki was taking pictures all along.
Nikki said: “Then Vishal turned and actually pointed out that I was there and you could see the shock on her face.
“So that was lovely and I went down and congratulated them.
“Then I said, I’ll be back in two seconds, because I’d actually taken a bottle of fizz for them and I just hid it in the bushes along with two glasses.”
Nikki said that the couple were “absolutely delighted” with the photos.
She said: “I normally take a few weeks to turn galleries around but I got to work on these ones really quickly because I knew that they’d want to share their news with family and friends.
“I got some images back to them later on that evening, and then I made sure that the whole gallery was ready for them before they actually left Scotland to have a look at them.”
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