I adore the brainstorming process for engagement sessions! A meaningful location, perhaps a prop or two, or a theme, endless outfit choices… there are so many ways to personalize a session, and I loved going through the planning period with Anita & Eric. My heart skipped a beat as I opened Anita’s emails to see phrases like “vintage time-travel theme”, “hourglass stool”, “pink dress”, and best of all, “we went wild at Home Goods” :) I would conjure up all sorts of fantastical images along the way, but I was still blown away when I arrived to see all they had put together for the session! With this kind of excitement & dedication (and love!) from the couple, how could the session be anything but fabulous? :)

Can’t wait to see them (and Uyen! one of my most favorite coordinators) again for their wedding this June!

I would really love to have this pink gate in my house. kthxbye.

For the second part of Joann + Donald’s session {see part I here!}, we headed down to the beach to chase the last of the afternoon’s golden light. They brought along a bunch of the prettiest pastel balloons – I’ve done quite a few fun balloon sessions & I know we’ve all seen lots of lovely versions on the interwebs, but I loved Joann & Donald’s idea to place them around in the sand for a different look. Pops of color galore!

A big thank you to Love and Lavender for featuring their session!

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!