We didn’t plan for the fog.

We figured out sunset times and when to meet for the optimal golden light, and when I woke up that morning the sun was streaming in my window. It was cheerfully sunny on my drive over as I passed through 4 different cities, and literally just as I pulled up to the block before the beach, the sun hid away and we found the entire shoreline was blanketed in a cloudy mist. And now when I see these photos, I couldn’t imagine it any other way. The fog was perfect. Ala {my dear friend and fellow photographer} and her hubby Steve were perfect. The quiet, calm and empty beach was perfect. Her dress? That flower crown? The simplicity of just this one location, of following a couple and documenting their love? All perfect.

At the end of the session, I told them I could photograph this session all day every day, and I meant it.

Jess is a friend of mine from oh, maybe the 1st grade? We used to make “green tea” with mint leaves (plus a bunch of other questionable stuff) from my backyard and try to feed it to our younger sisters. She always had the most epic birthday parties and perhaps even let me copy her geometry homework once or twice (SCREW YOU PROOFS). I would like to compare Jess to Mary Poppins, in that she’s practically perfect in every way. She is ridiculously smart, horribly sweet, fabulously silly, abundantly kind, and a great friend.

So when she first told me about Rich, I may have been a bit skeptical. Because who could be so perfect for such a perfect person? But upon hearing about him and meeting him I realized that he somehow also is smart, and sweet, and silly, and kind, and most of all makes Jess endlessly happy. The proof (NOT THE GEOMETRY KIND) is in the photos. In the way he’s gazing at her in this one. The way she’s laughing in that one. Their whole engagement session was so joyful, so personal, so real.

It may have helped that we shot in a wonderful little Italian restaurant {La Sosta Enoteca – oh the light! the rustic chairs! those billowy curtains!} in Hermosa Beach, where they had many of their first dates and first memories. Or that Rich brought along his two awesome daughters (be sure to scroll down!) for the second half of the session on the beach.

As I always hope for in engagement sessions, this one did seem so them – practically perfect in every way :)