Back in August, Scott and I found ourselves with a very rare and enticing situation on our hands – a free weekend! We usually have at least one wedding or engagement session per weekend, but that weekend we found ourselves entirely open and decided it would be the perfect opportunity for a mini summer trip. We brainstormed a few places to visit, and ended up choosing the Santa Ynez Valley, a new untapped spot for both of us, filled with stunning vineyards and located just above Santa Barbara.

And that’s how it became one of my new favorite places. Amazing food, beautiful rolling hills covered in grapes, wonderful little oak trees lining both sides of the highway, and well, Solvang (who doesn’t love Solvang?) – it was the perfect location to refresh our minds before the fall wedding season. Come take a tour with us!

(Special thanks to Betty of Type A Planning, Josh & Lauren, and Bonnie Tsang for their amazing recommendations on where to go and what to do!

When we first drove in (or Scott drove in and I reluctantly rubbed the sleep out of my eyes) we found that the weather was not quite the perfect sunny wine-country weather we imagined. But what could make that better? Sandwiches! We drove straight to Panino, an amazing sandwich place that came highly recommended. They were deliciously fresh and tasty:

Afterwards we headed to the place I was looking forward to most on the trip – Saarloos & Sons! A beautiful tasting room that I first saw on Design*Sponge. But an absolutely lovely interior alone, though giddy-inducing, was not quite enough to make me as excited as I was – a built-in cupcake shop, however, was!

I’ve had my fair share of cupcakes, but I have to say Enjoy Cupcakes *ahem* takes the cake (yes, I just went there, I did). I know this is a strong and dangerous statement to make, but they are in fact the BEST cupcakes I’ve ever tasted – the sweetness, the consistency, the ratio of frosting to cake is all perfection! And the best part, many of the flavors are wine-inspired, like Chocolate Blackberry Syrah and Pineapple Chardonnay. The Honey Mousse was my favorite:

Afterwards we visited Solvang to walk around for a bit and also stopped by the mission to take in the view of the hills – and do some crazy jumping shots of course. It seems Scott is quite excited about our mini-vacation:

That night we had dinner at Root 246, a new restaurant in Solvang with delicious food and a clean, modern vibe:

On Day 2 we visited a few different wineries, my favorite which was Foley Estates. As you drive up the road to the tasting room it feels like you’re pulling up to a Tuscan villa!

In the midst of our winery tour, we came across an awesome little find – an ostrich farm! I may look smiley but I was really holding onto that feeder for dear life. Ostriches are all kinds of violent when they eat:

And some emus! I’m not going to lie – they are definitely no cuddly puppies (but a little less spastic than ostriches when you feed them):

It was almost time to head home, but we couldn’t leave Los Olivos without having just onnnne more of those amazing cupcakes. So we picked up some sandwiches and some creme brulee cupcakes and had a little picnic at Firestone Vineyards…

Stay tuned for more on Firestone Vineyards next! Just a few weeks after our trip we returned there for Scott’s sister’s beautiful vineyard wedding! Can’t wait to share about their amazing day!

       

Where to start? I always encourage couples to personalize their engagement session, think of something unique, bring a prop or two… but Dawn & Craig took it to an entirely different (and amazingly wonderful) level!

In our email exchanges, Dawn sent me the idea of a vintage picnic session that combined all of their favorite things, and we immediately took off on a mad brainstorming session. The result had me giddy with excitement – the perfect sun-kissed location, a picnic basket (complete with a baguette!), vintage sodas, books, cupcakes from Frostings (links to a wonderfully written review by Dawn), and a bouquet of bright yellow flowers. The finishing touch was their custom-made bicycles – Craig goes biking daily and they have over 15 (fifteen!) at their home (as Dawn puts it, the bikes multiply like rabbits).

From our very first meeting, where Dawn and I chatted about folding cranes (she’s folding 1000 for the wedding!), our shared hapa roots, travel, music, and food (Dawn & Craig met working at Roy’s – what a deliciously romantic way to meet!), I felt like they would be the perfect couple for us, and can’t WAIT for their wedding in December! It’s going to a beautiful and fresh wintery-wonderland affair!

Special thanks to Ruffled for featuring this session!

The opportunity to meet an amazing couple in San Francisco happened in such a fast and fantastic way that I almost can’t believe it.

Just a couple weeks before their session, I get a call from Jeff (in Chicago) who said he and his fiance will be in California and think it would be a good opportunity to do a session with me. I find out they will be in SF, not LA, my heart sinks for 15 seconds, but then we work it out for me to come up to meet them for the session. On October 2nd, we drive up to SF, photograph the beautiful couple at the stunning Baker Beach, have dinner with friends (here! it was spectacular!), and then drive back early the next morning for an engagement session back in LA on October 3rd.

It was a whirlwind, but it was a wonderful trip – Jeff and Cherry are beyond sweet and it was so exciting to be able to rendezvous with a couple from halfway across the country. It was also so thrilling and refreshing to shoot in an entirely new and unfamiliar backdrop. I might have been (and still am) a little too obsessed with those twisty windy cypress trees and the perfect backdrop the woodsy area by Baker Beach provided. It was almost as if select trees had toppled down in a perfect fashion, and someone said “we could move these, or we could leave them here because they would look AWESOME in a photoshoot.”

I fall in love with SF a little bit more each time I go – the urban vibe, the cute apartments, the amazing food. I know there are so many other nooks that we have yet to explore and better yet, to photograph around, and can’t wait to go back again soon! If you’re planning a wedding or would like to do a session in the bay area, I would love to hear from you! :)

Special thanks to Hana Chung for recommending some great spots for a session in SF! :)