As most all amazing love stories begin, Frank and Amanda met by chance. They hung out one night amongst a big group of friends at church, swapped numbers, hung out the next day, hung out the day after that, and the day after that.

Since they’ve met, Amanda and Frank have been inseparable and I’m so excited to be shooting their wedding this March (soon!).

Frank has a second love, however, and it’s the art of magic. He’s a magician and can always be found with a deck of cards in his pocket and an illusion ready to amaze Amanda jokes she shares custody of Frank with his cards, but no matter what loves him to pieces every moment she gets. (Can’t you tell?!)

We took these two to one of our absolute favorite places to shoot and just got out of the way! The engagement session for us is all about practicing for the wedding and getting comfortable in front of the camera. No need this time! Amanda and Frank fell into one another’s arms and never looked back. They were so much fun and we are so blessed to be entrusted with the moments they will forever have to remember their day!

Here are just a handful of our favorite images!

P.S. Be looking for a post this week recapping my amazing trip to Miami for the Portfolio Plus Workshop with Ray Santana and Kenny Kim!

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This past weekend I got a call to go and help my buddy Jeremy Lucero with a wedding he had in Riverside, CA. Anxious and practically jumping at the chance to put my new Nikon D3 camera through the paces, we met up at the crack of dawn off the 91 freeway and carpooled out to the Mission Inn Hotel where Eileen and Jason were getting ready so we could start shooting at 7:30am. There were some clouds in the sky but no hint of rain, so we had free reign over the entire grounds at the Mission Inn. After leaving for the day I was AMAZED at what a location it was. I’d never heard of it when I arrived, but left with it being one of my favorite places to shoot! Even with the sun shining brightly overhead, there were always a million amazing options to shoot. And believe you me…we used as many as we could!

It was truly a spectacular day filled with all the amazing moments I’ve come to love being a wedding photographer; Erin was crazy jealous when I got home with these images! We are crossing our fingers to book a bride here in 2010! Ladies, if you haven’t checked this place out and you’re getting married, click on the link above and see for yourself!

Here are a few from what was an amazing day.

- – Eileen didn’t want to see Jason before the ceremony, but she wanted to hear his voice and at least hold his hand for the last time before they got married! – -

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- – It looks like this could be in Italy, you’d never guess it was in Riverside! I love the Mission Inn! – -

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- – For our photographer buddies: This was taken at 4000 ISO at f1.4 around a 60th of a second shutter speed. Gotta love the D3! – -

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oved_style=”text-align: center”>- – This was Erin’s favorite shot of the day! “Now THAT’S Art!” …thanks love – -

Okay, so this isn’t any new information…but it is important!

I’m willing to bet you clicked on this for one reason…and it’s a four letter word that starts with “F”

But I must admit, there is a hint of selfishness in this FREE offer on our part, so let me explain!

The engagement session can be a bit nerve-racking, let’s just be honest. If you haven’t spent a great deal of time in front of professional photographers already, there’s a bit of anxiety and for a bride who wants everything to be perfect for her wedding, she of course wants the “practice photo shoot” to be perfect as well! After precise, careful calculations and after having been around brides who’ve shown every color of the emotional rainbow, Erin and I have come up with a formula:

Stressed-Out Bride + Amazing Wedding Day = Amazingly-Stressed-Out Wedding Day Photos

Now before you all promote me to Captain Obvious, let’s roll on back to the engagement photo shoot. THIS is the practice for the big game, this is where you get to spend some one-on-one time with your photographers and get a feel for what to expect on your wedding day; getting out all the nervous laughs, and really letting your true selves come out in front of the camera. There’s no way to do this until you’ve done it. Until you’ve gone out, gotten (not a word, I know) a feel for how to be comfortable in front of the camera…and more importantly, comfortable around your photographers!

THIS…IS…HUGE…because if we go back to our genius formula and take out the stress, all we’ve got is Amazing Wedding Photos

To ensure that Erin and I can have this quality time with you, we wanted to take finances out of the equation. So we neither add nor subtract from our price if you do or do not want an engagement day with us! Our advice is to take the time, get more amazing photos of you and your fiance (because you do loosen up after a few minutes with us and have SO much fun), and then come the wedding day all the “first date jitters” are out. We know how you work, and you know we’ll be giving you great images without a shred of doubt!

**ADDED**

I forgot to add one thing that a lot of our brides ask, and it’s a great question: “What can I do with my engagement photos?”

You’ve got these fun and romantic images, but now what?

Erin and I ran into the same question after we had our engagement photos (taken by celebrity wedding photographers Mike Colon and Ray Santana). But, we found the solution, and now offer it to our brides!

A hardcover guest sign in book incorporates your engagement photos amongst blank pages where your wedding guests can write a message to you on your wedding day. We design each book ourselves and it truly makes an amazing gift to read after your big day. Ours proudly sits on our coffee table and we read the notes of our friends and loved ones often! And since it might be a bit hard to get what I’m talking about, here are a few photos of past client’s guest books…as well as maybe one of OUR guest book