It was last November when I first met Courtney & Andy! As we discussed the details of their Portofino Hotel & Marina Wedding Courtney and I clicked instantly. We wrapped up our consultation and I walked away a little unsure. On one hand I was like that went really well, I think I nailed it, but Andy's demeanor had me questioning my skills. Not too long passed and I heard from them again, and after a few more email/phone chats we put together a package that worked for these two lovebirds. Courtney then confessed Andy was playing a little hard to get, and it worked LOL! As the months passed Courtney and I began texting about the engagement session, and then it quickly turned into randomly texting about our favorite trash TV shows (Real Housewives, The Bachelorette, etc)! We bonded over our secret stashing of bags of new clothes we keep hidden from our other halves, and our OCD tendencies. It was then I could tell this was going to be an AMAZING couple to work with! I guess our secret is out now, sorry Court! Hurry and hide those bags in the back of the closet or under the bed. As we discussed locations for the shoot we talked about the beach, but we wanted it to do be different than every other beach shoot you see out there. One weekend I happened to be shooting in Santa Barbara, and saw a sign for Lompoc Flower Fields. I quickly researched it, Google image searched it, and then texted Courtney and was like listen we can still do the beach but you have to check this out! Immediately she fell in love and began buying outfit upon outfit, I think she confessed to buying 10 like new outfits, don't worry Andy she "returned" the ones we didn't use...And by return, I mean she returned them to the bag, and then put them in the back of the closet lol! The day quickly approached and the occasional text from Courtney would come in, "Are you sure the flowers will still be there?" Or "What if it rains?" Or "Did you see what happened on The Bachelorette last night?" All her texts or emails were appropriately signed "OCD GIRL!" I can't help but laugh, because anyone who knows me can vouch that I'm pretty OCD myself and am guilty of the same thing! As you can tell the flowers were still there when we got up there so we just went with it and had a little fun running through someones flower fields, very careful as to not to damage them :-) As we drove from Lompoc back to Santa Barbara to wrap up the shoot and finish at the beach we encountered a couple of obstacles! I kept seeing these gorgeous fields, with rolling hills, and beautiful cloud covered skies and was like we have to stop and shoot here, but every field is fenced off with electric fences and barbed wire. So I had to get creative, and we had to trespass! We hopped a barbed wire fence only to land into a field filled with cows. Courtney had on a dress and risked showing the passing cars her backside but was most concerned with ripping her new "sexy Bebe dress" lol. We made over without tearing a dress, a layer of skin, or a hamstring! It was all fun and games until a few of the bulls looked like they wanted us gone so we had to make moves to a different area of the field. The end result was not arrest, but some very beautiful shots showcasing the gorgeous fields of Southern California. As we made our way down the coast to Santa Barbara a man filled with anger and road rage decided to pass me going 90 on the shoulder of the road nearly side swiping me and hitting another car. Can I just add he was DRIVING A PRIUS, and no it wasn't Andy lol. However he and Courtney witnessed the entire thing driving behind me! Seriously dude you're not Vin Diesel, and I'm not sure where you're going that fast in that Prius of yours, but you should probably relax before you kill someone. Once our lives were not in danger anymore, we made it to our final destination, the beach and as you can see we captured some really amazing sunset shots! So to make a long story even longer, there's not much we won't do over here at LA Exposures to give our clients some amazing photos paired with an ACTION packed day to remember forever! Stay tuned for their wedding photo BLOG post coming soon!

Sometimes it is definitely about who you know! Thanks to my other half, I was fortunate to meet a new friend named Greg, I call him my nugget. My nugget's close friend Ryan recently got engaged to the gorgeous Amourelle! Check her out below! Greg was kind enough to pass along my card to Amourelle, who reached out to me that same day to schedule an engagement session in Santa Barbara. Fast forward a week and we were finally able to sit down and go over some ideas, wedding samples, and her vision for her engagement shoot. As we were talking I asked where the wedding would be, and if she already had a photographer for that. I think I fell off my chair when she replied with, "We are having a family wedding in New York, and then a second wedding a week later in Paris." My two favorite cities in the world!!!! She had been talking with a local photographer for the Paris wedding, but didn't really think about having someone shoot her NYC wedding. Before wrapping up our meeting, I put together a custom package to include Santa Barbara, NYC, and Paris. The Paris wedding will be held inside The Rodin Museum Gardens. I DIE!!!!! A week later Amourelle called and made my day, well let's be honest she made my year! They were excited to move forward and bring me on board to shoot everything! Thanks to the amazingly talented Elizabeth LaGue, Amourelle's hair and make-up came out stunning! Not only did we spend hours making our way around SB capturing their love, we spend quite some time bringing out their fun, quirky side too. Amourelle bought a few really great props for the shoot, including an amazing blanket, and gorgeous Eiffel Tower champagne flutes! She also made one prop that had the potential to be great, but let's just say the confetti took a nose dive for the ground before exploding in the air. The only thing that would have made that series of photos better, would have been capturing a sad face as the confetti took a nose dive! So here's the magic we made up in Santa Barbara, and I can't wait to share their NYC and Paris wedding images next spring!