When it comes time to chat about the engagement session, I always encourage couples to think of ways to incorporate a bit of who they are. Weddings with personalized touches are my favorite, but engagement sessions give additional free reign for meaningful locations, outfits that are perfectly “you”, and any fun props or themes - the possibilities are endless! :)

Suzanne & Robert took the idea of a personalized engagement session and ran with it! They both love the outdoors, & in her emails, Suzanne painted a picture of them camping, with hot chocolate, a tent, and lush natural surroundings. And so for the second half of Suzanne & Robert’s session, we ventured into the hills for a mini camping trip. I love all the details they gathered {Suzanne even brought along her trusty SLR} & their outfit choices as well - the perfect blend of rustic + outdoorsy + stylish, which fit the settings perfectly! We had so much fun setting up the scene & running around the area. And props to Robert & Scott for pitching the tent in what has to be the fastest time I’ve seen - and I’ve done some lightening-fast tent setups in my Girl Scouting days (okay, I lie, we were much better at selling cookies than pitching tents.)

It’s an amazing thing how memories can turn a regular place into the most beautiful location. What was once just a coffee shop, or a city park, or a stretch of shops, becomes a place you recall in your mind with so much love and adulation. Suzanne & Rob chose UCLA for their engagement session, a location that served as the place where they first met (a story not too different from Scott & my own :), and as we walked around the campus, they pointed out the spots where their memories were created.

I loved how the session came out - it wasn’t the cover of a UCLA brochure, with Royce Hall & the Sculpture Garden in the background, it was the UCLA that Suzanne & Rob remembered best. It was the hallways where they had neighboring offices, where they belonged to student coalitions fighting hunger and homelessness in LA, it was the “less-scenic” South Campus where they would meet between classes, it was the back lunch patio by a familiar building.

For Scott and I it would have been the Wooden Center, and underground parking structures where we had taiko practice, and *gasp* the engineering building he once gave me a tour of. Talk about unpretty places. But in my memory, they are stunningly beautiful because they represent exciting beginnings and falling in love. I hope when Suzanne & Robert look through these photos, they can feel the same way, filled to the brim with memories of excitement and happy moments :)

Stay tuned for Part II, camping in the wilderness! A tent, hot chocolate, and piggy back rides soon to come!

Suzanne told me that she specifically bought her shirt for the session, & that it was from *swoon* none other than Anthropologie. I think Anthro’s romantic styles always look so beautiful in photos!

Part of what makes my job so insanely awesome is getting to experience stories in the making and then saving those stories in my camera. The other part is getting to hear stories from way before I ever even came along. One of my favorites is the “how we met” story - over the phone or email or a hot cup of coffee, I have heard tons of hopelessly romantic & wonderful versions. Christin & Andrew’s story, however, might have reached a whole new level of romantic, I believe my exact words when she told it to me were, “it’s like out of a movie!”

They met on a plane from DC to LA - Andrew, who was sitting a row or two behind Christin, sent her a sweet message thanks to Virgin America’s high-tech futuristic seat-to-seat messaging system. They spent the remainder of the flight talking, which turned into numerous trips cross-country, and now, an engagement. Christin wanted to tie their romantic beginnings into the session and we eventually came up with the idea of paper airplanes. We folded a couple larger ones and tons of teensy colorful ones (out of origami, which is my crafting nemesis - I’m positive all those nose-diving airplanes were mine).

Christin & Andrew - we had such a fun afternoon with you! Thank you for allowing us to share a bit of your story :)

P.S. This session was featured on the ever-lovely & inspirational Ever Ours blog! Thank you Lydia!

On the right they’re making “infinity hearts” - a cute symbol of their own creation!