Tag Archives: beauty

Palace of Fine Arts engagement in San Francisco // Blake & Kristen

san francisco romantic engagement

how he asked-torrance wedding-photography We set off on a two week vacation to visit Budapest, Vienna, Salzberg, Munich for Oktoberfest, and finishing off in Prague.

We had visited Budapest, Vienna and then headed over to Salzberg. That night Blake surprises me and tells me the following afternoon we are going to a Chateau in Schloss Fussi overlooking a serene lake where we are going to stay the night. I thought this rather interesting because we rarely treat ourselves to nice hotels so I thought something was up. That night I get all dressed up and we head to dinner, nothing..totally thought if something was going to happen it would have happened there. In the morning, it is pouring! so we head to breakfast and then make our way out of Schloss and onto another little town outside of Munich. We head to Oktoberfest and then make our way to Prague where we have three days! On the 2nd night there we are craving some normal food and we LOVE mexican food. A girl we had met at Oktoberfest was studying abroad in Prague and told us about this Mexican restaurant that was the best she’s ever had, so we decided to try it out. (Definitely not even close to the best we had, but she was from Providence and we live in CA – enough said). Anyway Blake is acting a bit funny all night and is SO sweaty. I really didn’t think much of it to be honest…we ate dinner and then after every meal we always try and get lost in the streets to make our way back tot he hotel and Blake always leads…so he leads me over to this small little bridge that is a love lock bridge. I LOVE love luck bridges – I fell in love with them when we went to Paris and even in Budapest, and Vienna they had them as well. Well he surprised me with a lock! how romantic! so we put the lock on, threw the key in the little stream and took a few pictures. Little did I know that when I was putting the lock on he had pulled out the ring, after pictures..he got down on his knee and the rest is history!! That night I found out that this was only a plan B. His plan A was actually at the Chateau and he had organized for us in the morning to take a paddle boat out to the middle of the lake where he would propose there and the hotel had already planned to have strawberries and champagne for when we returned however that morning it POURED – it was the ONLY day the entire trip it rained. But to be honest I liked the last minute Plan B better anyway. More us 🙂

That’s our LONG story!! 🙂 And we are celebrating 6 years together in a few weeks!

MAKE SURE TO SHARE HOW MUCH YOU LOVE BLAKE & KRISTEN BY COMMENTING BELOW!

san francisco romantic engagement s an francisco romantic engagement

MAKE SURE TO SHARE HOW MUCH YOU LOVE BLAKE & KRISTEN BY COMMENTING BELOW!

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Rameen & Heather // Fairy tale mountain engagement

FROM THE BRIDE // It is not too common, I think, that a person is able to remember the exact evening that let her know that she has met someone to really hold on to. In my case, I count myself lucky to be among those who had a moment when they just “knew.”

Right from our second date, we really started to hit things off –literally! We had just made it downtown to get dinner and do a local art/wine walk when Rameen accidentally ran his car into a concrete wall while parking in a downtown structure. Thankfully, he was going very slow and no damage was done, so we just had a bit of a laugh and continued on to dinner. He took me to his favorite Italian restaurant in downtown Santa Barbara; there, we laughed some more and swapped stories and opinions over delicious but very generous portions. Soon finding ourselves completely full, we had the leftovers bagged to-go and left the restaurant to continue with our wine tasting. Rameen lagged behind as we started walking, however, and I heard him say, “Hey, you hungry?” Thinking that he was talking to me, I turned around to reply, but instead saw him offering our leftovers to a homeless man nearby on a bench. It was a small gesture- lots of people might not have even noticed- but it was one that has stuck out in my mind for years. It was what first clued me in to what a genuine, generous, and kind person Rameen was– and I’d somehow had the luck to meet him!

We went to only 1 of ~10 intended wine tastings that evening. To be honest, I completely forgot that that was what we were supposed to be doing. Instead, we just idly wandered up and down State Street, talking about basically everything. By the time he drove me home and we said goodnight, I knew that this was something different.

FROM THE GROOM // The weekend I proposed, I had everything set up–breakfast out at her favorite restaurant, the ring I knew she’d love, a decoy Valentines Day trip to Vegas for the next weekend in order to throw her off my trail (she’s a naturally suspicious person), and a plan for how to proceed. A nonchalant suggestion that we make the small hike to the nearby monarch butterfly grove got us started (it was the perfect time of year for it, and she’d never been–I knew she’d be excited to go). The hike itself was casual, but I’d rarely felt so nervous and anxious. I had to keep cool, and also prevent her from bumping into the little box stored in my jacket pocket. We made it to the grove, and there were butterflies all around. We sat and chatted for a bit while I waited for a good time (and to build up my courage). It started to drizzle lightly, and people cleared out. I saw my moment, perfect and intimate. I looked at her, got down on one knee and pulled out the ring. I honestly can’t remember what I said, but next I knew she was nodding her head and saying “Yes!” Her eyes welled up, I smiled, we kissed, and she became my fiancee.

MAKE SURE TO COMMENT BELOW AND SHARE THIS POST TO CONGRATULATE THESE TWO!

3 comments

Chelsea
You guys are incredibly adorable. Loved the stories.

Awww stop it you twoReplyCancel
Chelsea
You guys are incredibly adorable. Loved the stories.

Awww stop it you twoReplyCancel
TAJI&ALI
WONDERFULL&COUNGRADULATIONReplyCancel

Dave & Dulce // Travel Town Engagement

March 2013 // It was an early Saturday morning in Big Bear, and with nerves of steel (aided by an early morning whisky), Dave was finally ready. Months of research, trips to the LA Diamond district, and careful planning had lead up to today, and with the ring safely tucked into the least conspicuous pocket of his snowboard pants, he and Dulce made their way to the ski lift. His heart had not beat this fast on a lift before, not even his first time skiing when he was all but certain he would fall flat on has face at the top (fun fact: Dulce ended up falling flat on her face later that day). He ran through the brief but carefully thought out words he would say, knowing that she would be completely surprised in just a few minutes. At the mountain top, strapped into his boots, Dave started into the “speech.” He could see that Dulce wasn’t fully processing what was happening, but as she asked “Are you serious?!” he simply replied “yes,” and pulled out the ring. After a kiss, made somewhat awkward by the helmets they were both wearing, he slid the ring onto her finger, and they snowboarded down to the congratulations of their friends. The rest of the morning was a blur of phone calls in between snowboarding.

PLEASE COMMENT BELOW AND TELL DAVE & DULCE HOW MUCH YOU LOVE THEM!!

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Veronica Vasquez
I love you guys. Awesome pictures . Congratulations.ReplyCancel
Liz Kemper
These are fabulous photos! Who would have thought that 27 years after your first trip to Travel Town you would have your engagement photos taken there. The wedding photos are going to be amazing!
Lots and lots of love, Liz/MomReplyCancel

Nigel & Kethia // Fairytale engagement // San Pedro wedding photographers

Nigel and I had a crush on each other from the first day we met (through my best friend, his sister). As time passed, we became close and started dating in February. On October 1st 2013, Nigel asked me if I wanted to go back to this French restaurant called Les Noces Du Figaro in Downtown L.A. Les Noces is one of my favorite restaurants! I love it, first because the food is amazing and secondly because the interior design & decor is spectacular.

Nigel had set up a really beautiful night. We both got dressed up and he picked me up at my place. He said he wanted to give me this “gift” before going out to dinner. When he came to my door, he gave me a small notebook. I looked at the plain gift for a while, thumbing through the pages, and then I opened the book. There, on the page I had opened to was a drawing. I could tell that Nigel had been working on for a long time. There was so much detail, shading, and beautiful linework. After looking at the beautiful drawing I remembered that we had taken a picture together during Easter. It was a very special day for me because it was the day when I decided to follow Christ. I started to tear up because I knew how much time and effort he had spent on this gift.

As the night went on, I remember being mesmerized by the evening. The night was like a dream, flowing from moment to moment as if we were dancing. Evening dinner was, as expected, amazing. We had two appetizers, two entrees, a dessert, macaroons and coffee. Towards the end of our evening, Nigel asked me if we could take a few pictures on top of the balcony. I thought it was a great idea since this night had been so beautiful. As we approached the top of the stairs, our server started to take pictures from my phone. As I was getting ready to smile and pose for the camera, Nigel took my hands and tried to say something sweet quietly in my ear. I thought to myself, “He’s having one of his loving and sweet talking moments.” But I didn’t want to make the server wait for us, so I pulled him toward me to take the picture. Nigel couldn’t wait any longer. He came close to my ear and said how much he loved me and why he wanted to marry me. I was a little confused, but suddenly, he went down on one knee. We were both nervous and excited. Both of our hands were shaking when he told me he wanted to spend the rest of his life with me. I said: “OH MY GOSH, you’re doing it now!” With LOTS of tears of joy, I said YES!!!

Everybody in the restaurant clapped and shouted “Congrats!” My ring was beautiful. I couldn’t and still can’t take my eyes off of it. I feel like a girlie girl. I am so grateful that our server spent a few extra moments with us. He was able to capture everything with my iPhone video app. After a beautiful night of dinner and wonder, I kept reliving it over and over in my mind. Later in the evening, I wanted to remember the beautiful drawing that Nigel had created for me. As I turned to the drawing, I noticed one extra detail. Nigel had drawn an engagement ring on my left hand! If I would have been more observant, I could have known the whole time. Everything was perfect! Everything was how it was supposed to be all along! I became his life and he became my everything.

Thus, a fairytale engagement begins…