Another beautiful engagement session at home – always one of my favorite kinds. I was so excited when I pulled up to their Santa Monica apartment as it was the most lovely and historic one on the whole block. And they had a backyard! A rare & much coveted addition to west LA apartments and townhomes :) We did some cozy shots inside with books & chocolate-chip-cookie-making before strolling around their yard, and then headed down to the beach to finish up.

And I can’t finish up this post without throwing out a mention about crazy cute their cat was. I am a cat person {THERE, I SAID IT, IT’S ALL OUT THERE ON THE INTERNET} and am on a perptual worldwide mission to prove that cats make just as fun & loving companions as their canine counterparts. Liv & Greg’s cat should be the face of my campaign as he was SO full of personality – he ran up to me the second I walked in, desperately wanted to be in all the photos, and as we shot outside along the back and side of the house, he followed us from the inside, meowing from whatever window was closest. TOO CUTE.

This is an engagement session in the most literal sense – as in, they got engaged DURING THE SESSION. I love how the universe pulled everything together for this one.. a quick timeline of how everything transpired –

– Linda, soon-to-be engaged and ridiculously sweet, emails me regarding photographing her wedding this year.
– I find I’m unfortunately already booked in the month she was looking at.
– Super bummed-ness all around.
– A few weeks pass, I get an email from Reggie, saying he’ll be proposing to Linda soon, he knows we were in contact, and would I photograph the proposal?
– HECK YEAH.
– We plan it all out ninja-style (complete with code texts – I believe Reggie had me inputted in his phone as “Aunt Amy.”)
– The proposal happens at the lovely Santa Monica beach, we do portraits afterwards around the pier, and I get to work with this amazing couple after all!

Sometimes I meet with couples and they ask me what my style is. Even better, sometimes I meet with them and they sweetly tell me what my style is & just why they like it {heart=happy!} Of course every image that pops up on this blog is “my style”, since I don’t know how to shoot in any other way, but I just want to say, for the record, that so many things in this session speak to me. This laughter, this color, this movement, this softness, this light, this joy, this love – this is the stuff that just. feels. right.

And Anh & Todd? They are loving, laidback, and inspiring to be around. They are those types of people who are so full of life that even after a 7-hour drive straight from SF to their session, I felt chock full of energy in their presence :) So excited for their wedding at the Nixon Library this year!