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!

Deb & David’s engagement session was like a little tour of Orange County!

We started off at the John Wayne Airport, where Deb flies in when visiting David on weekends. This portion of the session reminded me of the opening/ending scenes in Love Actually where all the loved ones are meeting up at the arrival gate with the hugging and the laughing and the crying (it makes me bawl immediately). It’s easy to forget with the long layovers & uncomfy seats & bad meals, but airports really can be magical places, and John Wayne has become a special place for Deb & David, a way for them to stay connected as they live on opposite ends of the state. They’re actually building their wedding around this travel theme, and I know it’s going to be completely spectacular!

For the second portion we shot at The Lab, the cool “anti-mall” in Costa Mesa, and we finished up at Laguna Beach, which was covered in lovely light and seashells of every shape & size.

I love love loved hanging out with Deb & David – they were so super sweet, so in love, and so relaxed – they had tons of creative ideas but also put their complete trust in us for the photos. Can’t wait until their San Francisco wedding in July!

A couple weeks after the session Deb sent me their save-the-date, which David designed. How perfect is that little airplane-shaped paperclip?

Where did this year go? It flew by in a flash and yet somehow was filled with so many fantastic moments. 2009 was our first full year of business and I cannot believe how it panned out. At this time last year, I had 2 weddings booked for 2009 and you can probably imagine the lament-fest I was going through daily (“What if these are the only 2 weddings I have for the whole year? What if these are the only 2 weddings I have EVER AGAIN???”)

But January came and so did the emails. And in February came more. And now at the end of the year I can hardly believe how fortunate we have been to meet and work with so many amazing people. Clients who are now friends, who are supporters, who are some of the most warm and loving people I have come to know in this life. Photographers who are not competition, but comrades, who will give you advice late at night, who are happy to see you succeed, and other amazing vendors who offer both encouragement and inspiration. I want everyone to know that this year was shaped by you (yes, YOU!) and it is because of your support that 2009 has been so fantastic.

I am planning to release a post early next year with The Story, of how I got from being an utterly confused post-grad on the brink of applying to law school, to waking up every day to a job I love. I have been meaning to do such a post for a long time and have been piecing it together little by little. It may be a tad long, but I definitely want to document it here so I can come back to it every year and remember how it all started.

But for now, please enjoy the year in photos, some of my favorite moments from 2009. Happy new year and see you in 2010!