Night Engagement Session at Griffith Observatory

Whew! You made it to the end! Thanks for checking out the final results of our amazing day with Anika London's Josh and Ariel. They sure made us look good, and they are awesome people to boot. We just had the best time, can you tell?

These night shots are my absolute favorites from the lot. Maybe it's just the romantic in me or maybe we finally got comfortable in front of the camera by the end of the night but, for whatever reason, I am just in love with these photos. I feel so blessed to have such stunning pics to cherish for the rest of our lives that truly capture how I feel about the man I'm about to marry. I adore him!

Sorry for all the mushiness! Hope you have enjoyed the tour of our engagement photo highlights. I sure can't wait to see what amazing pictures we get from the wedding, it's so soon!

Dusk Engagement Session at Griffith Observatory

Los Angeles is just stunning isn't it? Jonathon has made me promise that no matter where we move through the years we will have our kids in LA so that they can be sixth generation Angelenos. We will see!

I think you have figured out by now that having our City of Angels as a backdrop was really important to us. Anika London did an amazing job of keeping the focus on us, but still setting us up against gorgeous backdrops. We took these pics a few weeks before Christmas and were blessed with the most amazing clear day. Sorry Midwesterners, you read that right! I'm wearing a t-shirt at night a few weeks before Christmas! I love LA.

For the close to our shoot day we headed up to Griffith Observatory where we enjoyed the city lights and beautiful sunset. Enjoy!

The rest of our engagement shoot highlights from our night at Griffith Observatory are up next.

Rooftop Engagement Shoot at the LA Farmer's Market

After we joshed around in the Farmer's Market we found a little private staircase (we definitely stepped right over the "closed, do not enter" sign... oops) that led to a rooftop patio overlooking the FM and the Grove. I think these came out so well because we felt like we were in our own quiet space but we were actually surrounded by so much action. The Romeo and Juliet super-fan in me that just loves a good balcony scene. :)

I also think the colors came out just amazing in this series.

More to come from our final engagement shoot location, Griffith Observatory, tomorrow.

Engagement Photo Shoot at LA Farmer's Market

The Original Los Angeles Farmer's Market has so much color and character, we knew we had to go there for part of our engagement shoot. Once we got there, however, we were a little overwhelmed by how busy it was, which, obviously we should have thought of before hand seeing as how the Farmer's Market is attached to the Grove and it was a Sunday a few weekends before Christmas... Duh.

I'm so glad we didn't ixnay this location though, as it has sentimental value to Jonathon and I, and because the pics we got here were some of our absolute favorites of the bunch. We definitely did get stares and random comments from passers-by, but it was all part of the fun. Josh and Ariel of Anika London could not have been more wonderful about dealing with the mayhem and steady stream of people, and we all had a really great time goofing off.

If you live in LA, you HAVE to go to the Farmer's Market, take a stroll and then gorge yourself on Brazilian food by the pound at Pampas Grill. Loteria Mexican food is also awesome, and there are a million other delicious spots from crepes to ice cream. The Farmer's Market is really one of our favorite things about Los Angeles. Hope you enjoyed our pics.

Up next are our pics from Griffith Observatory, our final location from the shoot...

BCAM at LACMA Engagement Session

Good Morning and Happy February! We're continuing on with our "Engagement Shoot Tour LA" this morning with the fav shots from BCAM @ LACMA (aka: The Broad Contemporary Art Museum at the LA County Museum of Art for those who don't speak acronym). One of our main reasons for choosing to spend part of our shoot at BCAM is the amazing Renzo Piano architecture. Hope you enjoy the red-green contrast as much as me, and that you aren't sick of looking at our mushiness yet! There is much more to come...


Bottom, middle or top of an escalator - I really like this guy. It's hilarious to me how many escalator shots we got and actually loved. You would think looking at our proofs that we spent an hour riding up and down but we actually only took one trip up. I guess we're just that good :)

Confession: We totally felt like rockstars standing on the balcony here at BCAM. Can you tell? Dang it feels good to be a gangster! And how baller is that Hollywood Hills backdrop?! Definitely worth all those trips up the escalator.



This portrait sequence is one of my favorites of our engagement pictures... It shows how multi-faceted we are! See: we're serious, happy, jokey, and snuggley! I didn't love the blur effect our photogs used at first glance at these, but the more I look at these the more I think it helps to keep us as the focus... literally. :)

Hope you enjoyed our LACMA engagement pictures! More highlights from our next location coming up tomorrow... PS: In case you're keeping track like me, only 55 days to go!

LACMA Street Lamp Engagement Session

OK! After much haranguing by you and slushing about by me, I am finally ready to reveal the highlights from our amazing engagement photos done by the talented husband-wife duo at Anika London. If I'm honest, by sharing these now I feel a bit like a magician who just learned a new trick and instead of saving it for his big show he tells all his friends how he does it. But hey, what the heck, enjoy the show now.

When we started the wedding planning process we knew that good photography was one of our biggest priorities. I was a bit skeptical about the need for engagement pictures, but I am really really really happy with our decision to go for it. The day we took our pics was such a special day. We got to visit some of our favorite LA spots, stare into each others eyes a LOT, make-out a bit, and generally just good off. I highly recommend it. We now have amazing pictures of us as a couple, not just as bride and groom, but as normal everyday in-love-people, and that is priceless to me.

I really hope you enjoy them, and forgive me for the quantity but it was just so hard to choose!

The Los Angeles County Museum of Art (or LACMA as most people know it) street lamps in the sculpture Urban Light are just so cool. They would have made for incredible night photographs as well. Maybe for an anniversary shoot one day we will try that, someone please try that, I bet they would make your heart flutter. There also used to be a giant Jeff Koons shiny balloon animal sculpture in the courtyard behind the street lamps which would have made for some very bad ass shots, but alas, it has moved along.

When we took our pics here at LACMA it was so hot and bright out and we were still a bit nervous and there we were standing right on Wilshire getting honked at, so we didn't last too long in this spot. I still love the portraits here though, so artsy, and even if we're a bit squinty I think there were still plenty of winners. How good are our photographers?!

We decided to use LACMA as a backdrop to our first stop on our "Engagement Shoot LA Tour" not only because of the stunning installations and architecture, but also for sentimental reasons. When I was in college I interned at the museum, and later when I taught high school art I took my students to LACMA for field trips and Jonathon would chaperon. It was very romantic.

The La Brea Tar Pits are right next door to LACMA and we definitely thought about taking some goofy pictures with a saber toothed tiger or two but I'm glad we stuck with the art.

Stick with me, this show has just begun! The rest of our pictures from LACMA's new Broad Contemporary Art building are coming up next and after that there will be more pictures than you can handle from all over LA!