When Kellie and Danny first proposed to me that they wanted their engagement session done in California I was thrilled! Not because I love to travel but because I’ve never been to California before. I know, everyone is SHOCKED! I’ve only been in the LAX airport on my way to Hawaii. Heather has been wanting me to go to CA for a while now to show me where she grew up in Orange County. That didn’t happen on this trip but Kellie and Danny (and her WHOLE family) showed me an amazing time! They really spoiled me and treated me like a member of the family. For that, I am so thankful and feel extremely blessed to have the type of clients that I do!
Hanging out and working with Danny and Kellie over the weekend, I just couldn’t like this couple any more. They’re that awesome and genuine. Pair that with how amazing Kellie’s family is, I just had an unbelievable time. For a first time trip to CA, it couldn’t have been better.
Enough talking. Let’s check out some of Kellie and Danny’s amazing engagement pics from the trip! I’m only showing a few but there are a LOT more in the slideshow below!
We started off Saturday by going to the Huntington Botanical Gardens, which provided for us an assortment of vastly different ecosystems to work in. Desert, Japanese gardens, Chinese gardens, sculptor gardens, this place had it all. But it was a huge place to walk around, it was 104 degrees outside and we only had a 1.5 hours. I could have spent days there…
Foothills of Angeles National Forest.
We went to dinner at LA Prime and afterwards went around taking more pics at night! This particular place below was at a museum close to the La Bria Tar Pits.
Sunday, Kellie and Danny had an engagement party with all of Kellie’s super fun family. Any time it got slow, we headed outside to grab a few pics.
Up at Kellie’s grand uncles beautiful house…
Santa Monica Pier! (thanks to Kellie’s bro-in-law Cory for being my living light stand)
We didn’t have much time there because we had to go catch Leno’s stand up act! What a blast.
Monday: our plane was leaving at 12:10p but they really wanted to do a shoot at UCLA. So with bags packed, we headed out. I absolutely loved the campus!
Check out this photo I took of the LA skyline. Beautiful city! Every place we went, I felt I could have spent so much more time there but we had so many other cool places to go. Next time, I want more time!
Thank you Kellie and Danny for flying me out to document your engagement! I absolutely loved every minute of it!
I rarely do slideshows, so please sit back and enjoy these photos I took! I encourage you to turn up the volume or put headphones on. The first person to comment below what song is playing in the slideshow wins a $10 iTunes gift card! No fair using Shazam. Sorry, Kellie and Danny, you probably already know it so you can’t win. 🙂
California Highlights (just if you’re interested)
- meeting Kellie’s family! I knew Kellie’s immediate family was cool but I didn’t know her whole extended family was just as cool.
- In-n-Out Burgers. Got to experience this for the first time. Did not disappoint!
- iPad. It’s so fun to travel with this little piece of amazing technology.
- Going up the elevator that Arnold did in True Lies with the horse!
- Seeing the US Bank building (that got blown up in Independence Day)
- Cruising around Hollywood at 12:30 at night. I saw some very, uh, interesting people.
- Going past THE Fredrick’s of Hollywood and seeing a 6 year old little boy on a leash STARING in with his mouth open and hands on the window while his dad is looking elsewhere completely oblivious.
- La Brea Tar Pits?
- The Walt Disney Concert Hall — what a beautiful building. It was night and it wasn’t lit well so we didn’t shoot there.
- Doing U-turns in the middle of Rodeo Dr and Wilshire blvd and probably other places because it was 1am and NO ONE was around.
- Spontaneity
- Santa Monica Pier
- Seeing Jay Leno in person
- Traveling back with Kellie and Danny and going through Priority seating, security and sitting in the exit row on both planes on the way home.
- Seeing my wife waiting for me at the gates TOTALLY excited to see me again (unless she was waving at Kellie and Danny)