Jen and JP’s love story starts 6 years before their Palos Verdes Estates engagement session.  It all began at a housewarming party in Westwood.  Her condensed version of the night went like this: “We both went as friends of friends.  We met and he tried to get me to play drinking games – I surprisingly said no.  We bonded over both of our initials being ‘JP’.  He then asked me to go on a date with him the next night in Santa Monica.”  To which, she obviously said yes!  They spent their first date walking around, sitting on a bench overlooking the ocean and just talking for hours.  *Insert cute sigh here!*

These are two of the sweetest people you’ll ever meet.  My heart was bursting listening to how these two talk about each other!  For instance, JP talking about a couple of his favorite moments with Jen: “For my birthday a couple years ago Jen took me to Ruth’s Chris.  The place didn’t make it special, she just looked so beautiful.  That smile kills me!  Another one was when we went ice skating in the Valley; she had to hug the wall the entire time!  She is adorable!”

Or when they were talking about the moments when they knew they were “the one”.  From Jen:  “I think it was an accumulation of a bunch of things.  After we met, we had such a fun and special summer together;  I truly thought it was going to be like Grease, summer romance and then done.  I was going back to Tucson to finish school in August, so I didn’t think it was going to turn into anything serious.  But I think the long distance really helped us actually.  It meant we had to make an effort to talk a lot and it made visiting each other even more special.  

He was working crazy hours at the time and would get no sleep at all just so he could stay up and talk to me at the end of my day.  I then started to realize how big of a heart he had and how he had so much love for his family (and his dogs!)  He also came to visit me one time and took a Greyhound bus 10 hours on a whim.  That’s when it really started to hit me.”

And from JP:  “She thinks I’m weird but I knew almost immediately!  The stars kinda aligned in my head when we met!  And after a few weeks of spending every moment possible with each other, I knew I didn’t want to ever be apart.”  They are just too cute!

The Proposal

I’m going to let Jen tell you about their proposal because I couldn’t do this one justice.  In her words:

“Our proposal was so cute and thoughtful.  JP is not the planner of our family, so I know it took a lot of time and help to pull it off.  It was my birthday weekend, and he had previously told me he wanted to take me out to dinner for my birthday the night before.  Both of us are LA-based so our families are always around, but he mentioned he wanted to celebrate on a night that was just me and him.  Because it was my birthday, I didn’t think anything of it.

My boss gave me the day off work so I spent the day in Calabasas with my mom and sister going shopping.  I knew he made a dinner reservation at 6PM so my plan was to leave my parent’s house around 4:30.  My mom is the worst liar in the world, and I am never on time for anything, so around 4:00 my mom started pacing and getting nervous.  She was trying to push me out the door and I kept telling her I had time.  But she insisted which I thought was odd but also not uncommon for her.  My cousin showed up as I was walking out with her babies, so of course I wanted to stay and play with them.  So naturally, I was already late and mixed with Friday LA traffic, I was SUPER late.

When I got back to my apartment, I had all of 10 minutes to get ready and JP was NERVOUS.  I just figured it was because I was so late and he is the most timely person I know.  Well, in my rush to get ready, I forgot a bra and did not do my hair at all.  But I figured we would go get dinner and probably see a movie so I was good.  He took to me the Huntley hotel which is across the street from the bench from our first date.

We had a lovely dinner, but the waiter was taking so long and he seemed to really want to leave.  He asked if I wanted to go take a walk to look at the ocean, and I was wearing heels so the thought of walking a long distance was not as interesting to me, but I said yes.  We were about to cross the street and there was a standard poodle diagonal from us.  I am obsessed with poodles and wanted to run across the street to pet it.  He was very adamant he wanted to walk the other direction, so I knew something was up.

We were walking for what felt like forever, and finally we go to these green arches on the pathway.  I saw this guy start to take pictures of us and thought that was so creepy and when I turned back around he was down on one knee.  I immediately started crying and feel like I blacked out.  He had a whole speech planned that he forgot to say and I equally was so excited I forgot to say yes.  I’m very close with my family and I knew they had to be around somewhere.  He arranged for both of our families and all of our friends to be at his mom’s office nearby with food and champagne.

It was such a great second surprise of the night.  I cried happy tears the whole time.”

Palos Verdes Estates Engagement Session

I can’t get over how sweet these two are and I think that adjective sums up their engagement session perfectly.  So without further ado, I hope you enjoy some of my favorite photos from their session!  I cannot WAIT for your wedding, Jen & JP!!

This Palos Verdes Estates engagement session won over my heart.  This city may just be my new favorite place to shoot.  The amount of variety in such a short distance is incredible!  

Also, if you’re thinking Jen looks familiar it’s because she was a bridesmaid at Paige & Eric’s wedding 2 years ago!!  And awesomely enough Paige & Eric found me through Sarah & David before that!  It is the biggest honor to be referred by my couples.  And the coolest thing to shoot a wedding and have past brides and grooms in attendance!

I am so grateful to get to work with all of these incredibly wonderful people.  Thank you for trusting in me!