How was your weekend?  Mine was eventful!  Was in 3 time zones.  Shot an amazing wedding in Chicago, met up with 2 of my couples from last year, one babysat for us while we shot the wedding, went blueberry picking in Michigan (apples and peaches t00)…  Just got home a few hours ago and tired.  Was going to share a wedding but decided to share a portrait session instead.  This is the beautiful encore session of Caroline and Mason.

Caroline contacted me after her wedding about an encore session.  After much brainstorming, we went back to their wedding venue.  It’s meaningful & beautiful – what more can you ask for?  She even had Fleuretica replicate her wedding bouquet!

Her flawless hair & makeup is by none other, Theresa Huang of TH makeup and design.

Mason said he wasn’t good in front of the camera… he lied.  I love the above portrait of him.

I’m thrilled that she got to wear her wedding gown again and so honored to have captured some sweet memories for them.

Happy June!  Can’t believe we’re about half way through the year already!  omg time flies.  I really wanted to get this blog post up yesterday, but I just got back from a (fabulous) shoot in nyc and needed a day to readjust.  Get comfortable though because this session was well worth the wait!

Jay and Elite contacted me last year when they first got engaged.  They live in Hong Kong and were planning a trip to LA for their engagement photos.  I love how couples have been really embracing destination engagement photos.  I love the carefree spirit that only a vacation can bring out.

Jay had this dress custom made for our shoot.  Isn’t it just the cutest thing ever??  I LOVE that ribbon/sash too!  …and Elite was also super stylish.  I almost missed these cool socks too!  It wasn’t until I had them take off their shoes to go on to the beach that I saw them.

His bowtie is so cool:

Jay had jetlag the night before and hardly slept.  You couldn’t tell though from how beautiful she looked!  Theresa of TH Makeup Design also did a fabulous job on her hair & makeup.

Not sure why, but I just love this photo:

They didn’t expect to get in the water, but had a blast.

A romantic sunset was the perfect ending to their visit.

During my own wedding planning, I shopped high and low for my wedding dress.  I didn’t think it would be as difficult as it was!  I went over budget a bit for it, but after the long search, it didn’t matter (that much).  Nearly 5 years later, I can say for sure that the budget is insignificant and irrelevant to the memories.  In my culture, it’s customary to change into several gowns during your wedding. When I mentioned to Jonathan how much my dress was, he broke it down to the cost/hr.  After that, I wanted to wear it as long as I could, and for as many days as I could!  I talked about wedding gown tea parties with my girlfriends, shortening it into a tea length dress, but in the end, what made most sense to me was to have an encore!  Get dressed up again and celebrate that dress!

Grace and Richard picked the perfect setting for their Encore session.  The LA Arboretum had the most beautiful colors and light!

There was so many beautiful spots to choose from that I ended up shooting twice the number of rolls of film than I usually do.  Just look at the light at the orange groves!

I adore Grace’s hair & makeup… by none other than Theresa.

peacock!

and getting flare in film is always exciting:

Wishing you both much continued happiness!

I’m in Vegas this week for WPPI, but had to make sure I scheduled a new post for you all!  Nikon is sponsoring my trip, so huge shout out to Nikon!  Check back next week for photos from the week of fun, inspiration, & learning.  In the meantime, I wanted to leave you with this adorable maternity shoot!  Tweeny is the genius behind The Flower Lab.  She did the flowers for a beautiful wedding I shot back in September -  I’m so behind on blogging that I haven’t even blogged that wedding yet!   We wanted to do something fun for Tweeny’s maternity shoot, so I thought of a retro/pin-up inspired shoot.  She found this adorable polka-dot bikini!

Theresa at TH Makeup & Design did her flawless makeup & super cute hair.

That blanket she’s sitting on was made for Josh by his grandmother.

These two have been together since high school – they have been together for half their lives!  Isn’t that so incredible?  You can really see how in tuned they are to each other, like completing each other’s sentences and talking so much alike – it’s really like talking to one person.  It’s amazing to witness their strong connection.

They have lived all over the country together, but have settled in LA by the beach for the past 3 years.  It was only appropriate to document this milestone on the beach.

Tweeny & Josh, congrats on the start of this new chapter in your lives!  I look forward to documenting the arrival & growth of baby Josh!  xoxo