Aleen & Rich | La Jolla Beach San Diego Engagement Photos

What an incredible trip this was!! I keep dreaming of going back to this San Diego and shooting again every single day. My sister Kat Collett, a.k.a. the other half of my dream team, flew out from Kansas City to be Aleen’s personal stylist, who glammed up her hair and makeup for their beach engagement session in La Jolla, California. As foodies, we explored several local restaurants including Korean BBQ, Filipino desserts, and chatted quite a bit about my new obsession for smoking BBQ! Rich even cooked us a delicious homemade classic Filipino breakfast, YUM!

Another fun part of this experience is when we went to the mall and I got to help her pick out all of her outfits including a gorgeous satin blush dress at Forever 21… but it was slightly too big. So I ended up conjuring my 7th grade home-ec talents, bought a sewing kit, and custom hemmed her gown to make it fit just right! Talk about full service, huh? 😜

For their engagement session, they brought their sweet dog, Molly, to join them for a few photos including a super cute one of her engagement ring on Molly’s nose. We pulled over in a random alleyway behind a grocery store complex for those and they looked at me like I was crazy but I saw “the light” and said just trust me… and thus it looks like they’re in the middle of a big beautiful golden field of wheat! 🙌🏼 Then we headed down to the beach in La Jolla for sunset photos. What I didn’t realize is how high the waves really get towards the evening… but Rich and Aleen totally embraced it, completely trusted my vision, and I am thrilled with how everything turned out! Make sure to look at the bottom of this post for a few hilarious outtakes!

Thank you Aleen and Rich for flying me out to your home in San Diego for your sweetheart session… I am SOOO excited to see you guys again and photograph your barn wedding at the Chaumette Vineyards & Winery in Missouri this September!!

And because there’s no way you can do a beach session without getting absolutely smashed by waves… here’s some outtakes 😂