Martha and Phil

A bit of a rushed post, but I really wanted to share Martha and Phil’s sweet engagement in the Vineyards before their wedding tomorrow! We were so fortunate to be able to use this location before the wedding day! So lush, green and gorgeous!!! Can’t wait to see you two tomorrow!!!:Dxoxo

Martha has the most amazing, inviting and beautiful smile!! Doesn’t she just feel like she could be your best friend?

We had some fun with the rakes we found!:D

 

Katie and Steve

Katie and Steve both love the beach! So we just had to take photos here! We were blessed with gorgeous soft overcast lighting! AND a stunningly beautiful sunset! SO rare to have both!  The first time we scheduled the engagement, our parade got rained on (literally) and we had to reschedule for a later date.  So boy was I happy with the gorgeous weather we had for the shoot!:D

I had the pleasure of meeting Katie through my childhood friend Nathan and his lovely wife Michelle!:D(Katie being Michelle’s older sister)  I still remember that night, Katie’s maid of honor speech made me tear up and cry.  Being an older sister myself, I knew exactly how she felt, I remember wanting to go up and hug her and tell her that I TOTALLY knew how she felt.. but decided that might be creepy as she had no idea who I was at the time. haha:D

Katie and Steve- You both are so great and fun to be around, and just so darn photogenic wow!:DI hope you guys had fun running through the birds! (haha) Hope to see you guys soon! Enjoy!

Travel Spotlight: Harry Potter Studio Tour-London

All I have to say is WOW. This is a MUST go for any Harry Potter fan. I was blown away by how amazing the entire experience was! This was absolutely the highlight of my entire trip to London.  First off, for anyone going in the future, I would highly recommend buying your tickets at least a few months in advance. (http://www.wbstudiotour.co.uk/)  I had decided I wanted to go to the tour last minute when I was already in London, and there were NO TICKETS.. at all! I called them, and they had mentioned on rare occasions people cancel and you MIGHT be able to get in. So I checked every day… every hour… every minute I was in London to see if any tickets would free up, and to no avail!! I was so close to giving up hope:(it wasn’t until the morning before my last day in London there was an opening! WOOHOO! I instantly snatched the ticket and off I went to the WB studios. Yes.. by lonesome myself. haha:D

So the WB brothers studio isn’t quite in the heart of London, you actually have to take a train out to Watford Junction, and then take another official “Harry Potter Tour Bus” to the actual studios! upon arriving, you are greeted by this rather impressive building.

Enter the building, and you are there is an area with all the actors head shots that gives off an atmosphere simliar to a really nice AMC theater

I felt like the thought of every moment you would walk through the tour, and showered us with goodies on the go! While you are waiting in line to get into the “official” tour area, here is the official “Harry Potter Closet” if you look closely you can even see Harry’s spectacles!:D

They show you a short behind the scene’s film, and then a giant curtain is raised and you are greeted with the doors to the great hall. Seriously WOW moment.
Details were stunning
They had all the different house robes on display

Moaning murtle’s robes as well

The Mirror of Erised.:DIts supposed to show you exactly what your heart longs the most. Guess I’m living my dream huh?:D

Yule Ball display!:DStunningly beautiful

Yule Ball Dress Robes
Fleur Delacour

The invisibility cloak and the Fat Lady Painting:Dhaha

Gryffindor Common Room

Gryffindor fireplace

Gryffindor Stairwell
Gryffindor Boys Dormitory
Gate to Hogwarts
Potion’s class, again the attention to detail is amazing!
you totally can’t see it, but the pot and the stirrers were actually moving!:D
The Triwizard trophy, and golden egg!
Clocktower upclose:D
Chamber of Secrets door
Dumbledore’s Study


So many little hidden goodies you had to look for! Like Godric Gryffindor’s sword hidden up top!

Vials of memories
Hagrids Hut


The Weasley’s Burrow
The dishes were washing themselves and food chopping themselves as well!
Scarf was knitting itself!
This was another very impressive display! All the different stationary, newspapers, invitation, candy, (anything you could possibly think of)–was all available on display!
Marauder’s Map
Diagon Alley:D


Ollivanders
Ever wonder how the filmed the broom scenes?:D
This area lead into a line where you could ride a broom yourself and watch yourself fly through the realm of Harry Potter via green screen! (they also take photos of you during your ride) Couldn’t resist I bought mine! haha:D

Gringotts Wizarding Bank

Death eater costumes

Aragog

Another super cool collection of Harry Potter Gadgets! Including Neville’s remembrall, snitch, deluminator, philospher’s stone and a few items i didn’t recognize
Mad Eye Moody’s chest
Professor Umbridge’s very very pink office haha
After the first building, you are led in to an outdoors area
The knight bus! they actually combined three vintage busses to make it!
And of course Privet Drive!
The giant chest pieces from the 1st movie

And then perhaps the most stunning part of the entire tour was this impressive model of the Hogwarts castle, was HUMUGOUS!! I had seen photos of it previous to coming on the tour, but I simply had no idea the how massive it was!  Along with playing the gorgeous Harry potter soundtrack in the background, I was nearly moved to tears.

Just to give you an idea of how huge it is,  If i were to actually stand on the model, I would probably make up only 1/4 the height of one of the towers.
The lighting would change the castle from day to dusk to night to sunrise. Simply stunning!

Over-all it was such an amazing experience, I would highly recommend this tour if you are ever in London.:) The amount of detail and thought they put into the film was mind blowing. I would definitely go again if I were ever in London again! I felt like there was so much to see I couldn’t have caught it all the first time around!:) Make sure to buy your tickets in advance and plan extra time for travel:)

Yasmine and Hassan

Yasmine and Hassan are so fun and so easy going! I had such a blast hanging out with them for the shoot, we went on an adventure through some local orange groves, and then down to the downtown Redlands. It was our first time meeting in person, but I definitely felt like I had made friends for life.  We quickly bonded over our love for healthy, organic foods, and our love for the less healthy sweets as well! haha:DAfter our shoot, I didn’t want our time to end together, we ended up getting some AMAZING fresh ice cream at A La Minute as well as went grocery shopping together at all the cute local organic food stands! During this time Yasmin and I bonded even more over being “doctors” wives, and how lonely that can be sometimes. We decided we should form a “doctor’s wife” support group haha!:DCan’t wait for your wedding tomorrow!!:D

 

“Where’s Yasmin??”  :D

They LOOOVE coffee and so do I!:D

 

Jaime and Alvin

Jaime and Alvin compliment each other so perfectly! Its so clear how comfortable and happy they are with each other!  While brainstorming for the shoot, both of them had mentioned they loved beautiful foresty locations as well as would love to include the dear doggies!  We had so much fun with the two locations chosen. Alvin’s friend had an amazing studio where we could access the roof! (I have a serious fear of heights, but the view and photos taken was TOTALLY worth it!)  I’m to excited to share these photos!:DAlvin and Jaime thank you so much for being so easy and fun to work with! I can’t wait to shoot your wedding!! Enjoy!

 

SOo in love with this rooftop photo at dusk. You can see the city lights just turned on:D

 

Heart Bokeh!!:D too cute right??

Their adorable cake toppers


Jaime and Alvin are huge laker’s fans! Its so amazing how they chose a wedding date that incorporated both of Kobe’s laker jersey numbers!!:D

Taken with me on the rooftop!:D Definitely one of my favorite photos of the set!  :D:D