We talked for over an hour the day we first met and we could have easily stayed at the coffee shop longer, these two are great company. It was no surprise that they brought “the fun” to our seaside engagement session at Pacific City in Huntington Beach. Their laughter and silliness throughout our shoot just made my day.  I seriously can’t wait to document their wedding later this year, I’m sure it will be filled with tons of smiles and giggles!

Read on to find out more about these cuties…

How did you meet?

Anne “met” Mike when she saw his cute profile picture on OKCupid and was brave enough to send him the first message. They sent messages back and forth for about 2 months before they were finally able to  meet for the first time at Balconi Coffee and hit it off even more. We still remember that first meeting vividly 🙂

 

What is your proposal story?

The day started with an intimate…….game of TIME Stories (one of many board games we own), and then later that night we had dinner reservations at LXSO, a Vietnamese fusion restaurant hidden inside of another restaurant at Pacific City, Huntington Beach. After we finished our delicious meal we walked around the beach shopping area. There was a cute Santa Station set up with beautiful Christmas trees and lights everywhere, and with the ocean in the background, Mike got down on one knee and proposed there. Anne was completely overwhelmed and couldn’t stop smiling…smiling BIG. She said yes, of course!

They continued walking around to enjoy the moment and decided to check out a roof top lounge to celebrate some more. Little did Anne know, there was another surprise waiting there. Mike had gathered the family from her parents in Orange County, his brother in Los Angeles, his dad in Palm Desert, and even his mom who flew in from Denver to all be there for the special occasion! They partied the rest of the night until they could party no more 🙂

Why did you choose your engagement location and what do you love about it?

It’s where we actually got engaged! We spend a lot of our time in Orange County as Anne’s originally from there, and when we’re here we like to go to the new shopping/dinning area at Pacific City because it always has a wide variety of good food and shopping. Also, the gorgeous views of the beach across the street is unbeatable.

 

What is your most valuable piece of advice you can share with future couples planning their engagement session?

There’s so many beautiful places out there where you can take photos, but we realized in the end, we wanted pictures of places that meant something to us so that when we look back we remember all the memories we had there. So our advice would be to incorporate a memory in your photos, whether it’s props or location 🙂

 

What is your favorite thing about being engaged?

Getting excited from planning an event for all the people we love most in our lives. Cheesy, I know, but we’re pumped about it 😀

 

XO,

Vanessa