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!

I met with Kay & Brenn at the Balboa Fun Zone for their engagement session. It was an overcast day, and as much as I love shooting in the golden sun, I was so excited about the soft creamy light & the dreamy feel it lent to the session :) We finished up among the rocky cliffs of Corona del Mar – please insert mad applause here for Kay & Brenn and their fearless hike over the treacherous terrain. (They were much more sure-footed than their photographer, but then again she manages to trip on 100% FLAT GROUND.)

July’s going to be a doozy of a month for weddings, and Kay & Brenn’s day will be the perfect way to wrap it all up! Can’t wait for their beautifulMission Inn wedding!

Fact: I take the phrase “The Happiest Place on Earth” not as a slogan, but as the cold hard truth (second only to “wherever there are cupcakes”, but that would make an awkward amusement park theme). And I could argue the Disneyland skeptics til the end of time – that singing animatronic pirates and pastel-colored rides and bundles of balloons and yummy turkey legs (and snow at Christmastime, snow!) outweigh the crowded, expensive side of things. So I was more than a bit excited for Van & Hai’s engagement session at Disneyland! We traveled from land to land and I got to photograph an amazingly happy couple in a fantastically happy place.

I would say that the positive vibes of Disneyland are infectious and therefore brought joy into the photos, but the truth is that it was the other way around – Van and Hai are some of the sweetest, warmest people I have ever met and they bring the happy with them wherever they go :) I feel truly blessed to have met them and loved photographing them in a place that holds some of their favorite memories!

I really love the soft pastel colors we found in this little corner:

Really adored Van’s stylish outfits!

I leave you with a quick shot Hai took of Van & I. I generally like to stay on the other side of the lens, but when Hai asked to snap one of us together, I couldn’t miss an opportunity to pose with such a sweet client-turned-friend! :)