Meenah & Shaobo live in Norcal and booked me after a meeting on Skype, so I was super excited to meet them in person for the first time at their engagement session! For their session, they suggested a sweet seaside beach picnic, complete with lots of pops of color and fun beachy activities. I’ve seen picnic engagement sessions before but never on a beach – I love the summery casual feel the sand & the sea lent to this session!

They drove down to LA with a car full of colorful candies (confetti-inspired shots galore!), bubbles, sodas, and two of the loveliest fabric kites I had ever seen, handcrafted beautifully by Meenah. They didn’t quite fly, but with the general selection of Batman/pirate/the Hulk-themed kites out there, this was an excellent decision of form over function :)

I loved this fun summertime session & am SO excited for their beautiful vineyard wedding this fall!

When Elisa mentioned incorporating her love of reading into their session, 2 images immediately popped into my head – one was of them standing among stacks & stacks of vintage books, a million feet tall, looming all around them like crazy book-skyscrapers. The second vision was them laying on a blanket, with tons of books again, except this time they were swimming in them. Either way, I figured we would need a googelplex of books.

So the next couple weeks were spent collected hardcovers, coming across gems from the 1940s from my dad, with the corners of the pages all brittle & yellow, and the prettiest collection of novels {those would be all the pastel ones you see} from Scott’s mom. I was seriously driving around town with bags & bags & bags of books in my car and it sort of made me crazy excited that I pretty much was in a mobile library & at any given time I could just stop and read them ALL (didn’t happen, but exciting nonetheless). And though, by the time the session came around, we didn’t end up with quite enough books to tower 18 stories above Elisa & Andrew or to fill an Olympic-sized swimming pool, I was quite super giddy with the more realistic versions of brainstorming that we brought to life!

But Elisa must have figured that super giddy wasn’t quite giddy enough, because she had a second genius idea up her sleeve. She brought to the session a handcrafted GIGANTIC red heart kite. A kite. That was a red heart. That she put together, WITH HER HANDS. It was perfect & combined with Elisa & Andrew’s super sweet & silly personalities, it made for the funnest of fun photos. GIDDY X 1000!

It is sometime past midnight. A dreamy makeshift cafe, nestled in the middle of a woodsy area, sweetly lights up the otherwise dark surroundings. Cozy candlelight, warm tea, beautiful vintage furniture.. the absolute perfect stop for a newlywed couple! And all making for an inspirational shoot so creative & lovely, that it would entice even this can’t-function-before-10am-photographer to drive into the woods at 3am to photograph this beautiful setting. I’ve photographed many sessions that have gone from sunset to night, but this was my first time shooting from night through dawn!

A big big thank you to Amanda Auer of the super stylish and amazing wedding coordinating team In the Now for conceptualizing and organizing all the fabulous details of this shoot. And to Amanda at Ruffled for featuring this shoot on her blog! Ruffled is one of my favorite stops for gorgeous vintage wedding inspiration. And of course a big thank you to the beautiful newlywed couple who remained so pleasant and so in love despite the chilling temps!

Scroll down for a beautifully told backstory on the concept of the shoot, written by Amanda. And be sure to hop over to Ruffled to check out the post there!

I imagined a couple deeply in love, newly-wedded, who got distracted with the idea of a cup of coffee and some dessert on the walk home from their wedding. After the grand send off, after the dancing and drinks, after the party…. THIS is where the end up. At a quaint cafe, open late, laughing and loving the night away until dawn strikes and they mosey on towards home.

I love the idea of these two lovebirds reveling in the memories of their wedding day. Their feet ache, her head hurts from being pinned up, they’re exhausted… but they’re elated. Full of joy. Full of newness, hope, and love. Full of lemon crumble cake!

The idea is that these two order a slice of cake, a tea, and a coffee, and chat the night away until the cafe closes and as they walk down a quiet side road in the breaking dawn… they give a whole new meaning to the term “walk of shame”. I adore the idea of a wedding “walk of shame”- like you spent the WHOLE night out and you’re walking down the road now barefoot, shoes in hand, veil off and hair let loose, ready to head to sleep finally.

{ As seen on Ruffled }

Styling – In The Now, Amanda + Rachel
Rentals – Classic Party Rental
Furniture and Decor – Jeni @ FOUND Vintage Rentals; In The Now
Hair/Makeup – Carlie Buys at Carlie B
Dress – The Vintage Bride
Veil – Candi Merle @ Crowning Glory Veils
Models- Nick Bowser of Crafthouse Productions; and his lovely wife, Yanessa
Photography – Adrienne Gunde
Location- Trabuco Canyon, CA