angelique & jason | carmel engagement | holman ranch wedding

Angelique and Jason are the sweetest couple who live down in LA (Angelique is an accomplished actress starring in lots of recent movies and TV shows and Jason started a health food company down there called FEED Foods Inc.) but they chose to come up to Carmel for their engagement session since Angelique grew up in the area. They wandered around the quaint streets of downtown Carmel first and then they headed to the coast to run along the beach and have a little picnic at sunset. The weather could not have been more perfect and these two could not have been more in love, so the whole afternoon seemed to come alive with beauty.
Angelique and Jason will be back in the area next summer for their Holman Ranch wedding in Carmel Valley.

When a couple are as in love and as photogenic as Angelique and Jason it’s inevitable that their photographer might want to use far too many glowing adjectives and exclamation points while describing their session, and that her subsequent blog post might be a little long….so please accept my apologizes in advance! Angelique and Jason are both so sweet and together they make one dynamic couple. They both live down in LA where Angelique is an accomplished actress starring in lots of recent movies and TV shows and Jason has started a health food company called FEED Foods Inc. They chose to come up to Carmel for their engagement session because Angelique grew up in the area, and they’ve enjoyed spending time there over the years. We had so much fun together as we explored around the quaint streets of downtown Carmel, peeking into art galleries, candy shops, bakeries and even an old British phone booth. I love how every one of the places that we found seemed to have been designed just to compliment their outfits, and I’m pretty convinced that they should be the new poster couple for Carmel-by-the-Sea. A little later in the afternoon we headed to the coast to climb on rocks, run along the beach and have a little sunset picnic. The weather could not have been more perfect and these two could not have been more connected to each other, so the whole afternoon just seemed to come alive with beauty. I’m counting down the days until Angelique and Jason come back to the area next summer for their wedding at Holman Ranch, because I already know it’s going to be one beautiful and amazing day!

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kari & nick | palo alto engagement session

I am one lucky photographer to get to work with couples as lovely as Kari and Nick in locations as beautiful as the foothills of California, and this engagement session is a testament to that very luck. Kari and Nick encountered some good luck of their own thanks to a chance introduction through an internet dating site, and I loved that they wanted to start their engagement session off in a cafe in front of their computers in honor of how they met. We had so much fun that afternoon, visiting some of Kari and Nick’s favorite places, including their local park and a place where they love to go hiking near the Stanford campus. Between the amazing views, the personal props, the curious cows, and the love between these two, our afternoon could not have gone any better, (especially since the cows actually listened to me when I told them, or perhaps yelled at them to stop coming so close to us.) My luck will no doubt continue when I get to photograph their wedding day up at the beautiful Holman Ranch in Carmel Valley in just a few short weeks, and I couldn’t be more excited for it!

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rea & erick | napa engagement session at paraduxx

I love the adventure and inspiration of shooting at a new location, and Rea and Erick could not have chosen a more beautiful and personal location than the Napa winery called Paraduxx where they’re both wine club members. This was my first chance to meet these two and the second that I saw them arrive with their great smiles, their adorable dog named Sammy, and in outfits that I wanted to steal for myself and my husband, I knew that it was going to be a great shoot. We were so lucky to have to the whole place to ourselves for most of the afternoon, surrounded only by a sense of serenity and all of those gorgeous view. Rea and Erick are so easy to be be around, and so sweet too (when we had finished the shoot they handed me a gift bag filled with a bottle of Paraduxx wine. That was so thoughtful and unnecessarily generous of them…I felt like I was the one who should be giving them a thank you gift!) Of course now I’m even more excited for their Clos La Chance winery wedding later in the fall. I only wish they could bring Sammy that day too!

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shannon & jeff | los altos engagement session

Shannon just might hold the record for most the photogenic eyes I’ve ever photographed. Add to that her great taste in outfits and locations and some engagement session magic was created. I loved every one of the locations that Shannon & Jeff chose for their spring engagement session. They both grew up in Los Altos so we started at their hometown library where the cherry blossoms were in full bloom. Then we headed across the street to their favorite lunch spot that they always have visit every time they come home to get their deli sandwich fix. Then after another quick outfit change we headed for the hills to capture these two so comfortably in love in such a romantic and classically Californian looking location. The light was absolutely perfect and everything just seemed to flow so smoothly throughout the whole afternoon. I know their wedding at the Oceano Hotel in Half Moon Bay later this year is going to be just as amazing!

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kendra & nick | vintage travel engagement session

Kendra and Nick both live in Germany and both share a love of traveling, while Nick has his pilot’s license and a passion for aircraft after all those hours spent up in the sky…so these two couldn’t have chosen a more perfect theme for their wedding and engagement session than ‘vintage travel.’ I always love it when a couple use their engagement session to show who they are and what they’re interested in, and Kendra and Nick did an amazing job doing just that by choosing an airport as the location for the engagement photos. Once we got there, Nick helped tow his favorite plane into place, and then we had the best time running all around this lovely little airstrip in the countryside filled with old prop planes and helicopters. I loved that Kendra brought along some beautiful vintage suitcases and that we had airplanes taking off and landing all around us while I captured these two in love. I’m beyond excited to see their vintage travel theme continued at their wedding at Rancho Soquel later this summer, because I know it will be as personal, unique and super fun as their engagement session was!

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molly & james | san francisco engagement session

When I meet a couple for the first time and immediately want to steal all of their clothes for myself I know that I’m going to love working with them…and Molly and James are one such couple. We met in San Francisco near their home and then spent what I would consider a perfect afternoon together. These two are so fun, laid back and in love, so they made it really easy for me to capture them glowing and at ease. I always love shooting in a new location, and while I’ve shot in San Francisco countless times, I’d never shot in this particular area. San Francisco was in all of it’s tourist-free, winter glory that day, so we had the best time exploring around the waterfront and on some beautiful boats. Check out their save the date at the end of the post…every time I see it I get super excited to watch these two become husband and wife at Cornerstone Gardens in Sonoma later this year.

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jenny & rishi | stanford engagement session

Happy New Year! 2012 is proving to be a great year so far and I’m so excited to document a whole lot of love this year. One wedding that I’m really looking forward to is Jenny & Rishi’s, as I recently shot their engagement session and felt so inspired by our beautiful afternoon together. These two are both so kind and engaging and together they make one dynamic couple. Jenny is about to become a doctor and Rishi recently launched an awesome startup called Sosh that all of you in the Bay Area should check out to discover of the most interesting and entertaining things to do in the city.  Jenny and Rishi met while studying at Stanford University, so we had to begin their session on the campus. After we had explored some of the architecture and wandered around the areas where they had spent lots of time together, we headed for the hills nearby for a champagne and pastry-filled picnic. The sunset up there was insane, and these two looked amazing together in the late afternoon light. I’m seriously counting down the days until I get to document their big day and more golden light at The Carneros Inn in Napa early this summer.

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becca & tim | rodin sculpture garden | engagement session

It’s always so inspiring for me to photograph in a new place, and I have to thank Becca and Tim for choosing the Rodin Sculpture Garden at Stanford for their engagement session, as it proved to be an amazing location this time of year. Becca and Tim flew in from Boston the week of their wedding, and I’m so glad that we were able to squeeze in a quick engagement session before their big day. These two quickly became comfortable in front of the camera and we had such a great afternoon exploring around the gardens. One of the highlights was discovering an installation by one of my very favorite artists, Andy Goldsworthy tucked beneath some oak trees. Images from their beautiful, game-filled wedding will be coming soon.

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