engagement – Paper Ban Photography

Alex and Lucia’s Engagement Portraits Around Town

LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA

With El Nino looming in the air, I was excited to find that the day we were shooting Alex and Lucia’s engagement portraits, the weather was beautifully crisp and clear. We started the session in a quiet park overlooking downtown Los Angeles that I never knew about!

The last time I saw these two were in the summer of last year, so it was really nice to see them again, all dolled up and ready for the camera, haha. But seriously, how photogenic do these ladies look?! They also brought their adorable English Pug in his cute bow-tie with them to the shoot. Ah, I can’t wait to photograph their wedding in a few months!

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Karina and Misa’s Engagement Portraits in Julian

JULIAN, CALIFORNIA

It’s a beautiful thing when a friendship blossoms into an intimate relationship, which is what happened with the lovely Karina and her beau Misa. From spending a few hours with them while photographing their engagement session, I can say that their relationship is funny, quirky, dorky, and lovable, and it was a real treat to capture the affections they have for each other.

It’s strange to think that at one point in life, Karina and I were once high school classmates and had the same history class together. Or that, through a mutual friend, we ended up attending a Japanese pop concert in Los Angeles together. Or, even stranger, Misa and I went to the same middle school! And soon, years later, I will get the honor of capturing their wedding. I can’t wait!

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Bianca and Alex’s Desert Engagement Portraits

JOSHUA TREE NATIONAL PARK, CALIFORNIA

A few of my loves in world are road trips, traveling, the smell of adventure, and photographing in new places. So when my clients agreed to do a desert engagement session, and what’s more, at Joshua Tree National Park, I was super stoked!

Bianca wore this pretty white sundress while Alex had a light blue shirt and nifty suspenders (you can see he wore a red bandana tie in the beginning of the session but was nice enough to take it off and use to pry off cactus balls that pierced itself through my pants and onto my leg. Yeah… it was painful, haha). I had so much fun photographing their session and exploring the park with them. I can’t wait to photograph their wedding this fall!

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Jen and Jim’s Beach Engagement

SANTA MONICA, CALIFORNIA

When I met Jen and Jim for their engagement session, they had just landed in Los Angeles a mere few hours prior. You see, they’re from Sacramento, and the day after their engagement session is actually their wedding day! This is an unusual circumstance to have an engagement session so close to the wedding day, mainly because many couples use these images for their ‘save the date’ or announcement of their wedding.

However, I am so happy we were still able to do Jim and Jen’s engagement session irregardless of dates. One of the reasons is because during this session, it allows the clients and I to get familiarized with each other so that, on the day of the wedding, they are comfortable and relaxed enough with me to let me in their personal space.

Photographing Jen and Jim for this session was a blast. They were so cute together! Because their wedding would be a beach wedding, they wanted their engagement photos to be on the beach as well. In one of the photos, you can see Shutters on the Beach in the background, which is where they’ll be having their reception on their wedding day. You can see Santa Monica Pier in the distance in some of these images as well, and I absolutely love them!

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Sara and Paul

ABBOT KINNEY + VENICE CANAL, CALIFORNIA

Something that I’ve always loved about shooting on-location instead of in a studio is that I get to visit new and unexplored locations! I totally love it when clients pick a location that I’ve never been to! In this case, Sara and Paul wanted their engagement photos to be in a hip street in Venice called ‘Abbot Kinney’ that’s filled with boutiques and earthy restaurants.

We visited a couple of places, including a pizza place called Gjelina and a coffee shop named Intelligensia, and then roamed the somewhat hidden Venice Canal.

Sara and Paul were such a cute couple to photograph! Paul admitted he thinks he’s horrible in photos, but my gosh, he did so well! And Sara was so fearless when I asked them to go where no human really wants to go – near spiders!

I’m so looking forward to photographing your wedding this fall!

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Marissa and Nathan

SANTA MONICA, CALIFORNIA

In less than a month, Marissa and Nathan will be getting married. Though they are currently residing in San Francisco, their wedding will be taking place in Los Angeles as most of their friends and family are here, and, well, they used to live in Los Angeles for … a long time.

On a weekend when they came in to town to do a taste testing at the reception location and run the Los Angeles Marathon, Marissa and Nathan opted for an engagement photography session as well!

Marissa, wearing a spring coral dress and adorably curled hair, looked so cute in Nathan’s arms. Both confessed that having a couples photography session seemed a bit silly and didn’t fit their personality, but they did so well!! They charmed the camera, and magic happened, haha. I had so much fun as we toured a Santa Monica park and photographed their engagement session, and cannot wait to do the same for their wedding!

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