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!

On a lovely Sunday afternoon, we met up with Erika & Julian for their engagement session. As I mentioned in my last post, this was the 2nd weekend in a row we shot at the colorful Santa Monica Pier, and I loved the challenge of getting creative with new spots and perspectives. Erika & Julian also brought along something that made their session extra unique – their adorable dog Shep! He was ridiculously cute and so full of energy and I loved photographing all 3 of them!

Erika & Julian will be getting married in …wait for it… New York City next year, and it will mark our first out-of-state wedding! I am honestly SO in love with NYC and hope it will be the first of many amazing weddings there to come! :)

I was so excited when Kelie contacted me for their engagement session! They had not yet set a date or location for their wedding, but wanted to do a session around the colorful Santa Monica Pier. I have shot at the pier quite a few times (this was in fact the first of 2 in 2 weeks!) but I loved the challenge of finding new spots and putting new spins on old ones. And of course, Kelie & Kaare’s personalities and love created a session that was so uniquely them. I adore when a location reflects who a couple is, and I really think the bright pier and the calm beach was THE perfect backdrop for their chill yet ridiculously fun personalities!

My favorite shots of the day? The ones with the cotton candy! In all our SM pier shoots, this was the first where we incorporated this delightful (yet sticky) treat.