Last weekend, I told Annie that we were going to do an impromptu photoshoot in the hills of Santa Barbara’s wine country. Sometimes I spend so much time photographing for others that I often forget to document our own lives. So when time permits and the weather is pleasant, it’s really nice to do these random road photo trips.

That morning we grabbed cameras & coffee and headed out to Los Olivos. I had heard it’s a gorgeous area filled with serene views of Santa Barbara, so we thought it would be a nice place to do a meadow shoot. After driving around for a while, we finally found a quiet place in the middle of some open fields. I took a few test photos and then told her it was looking really cool, almost perfect, but I wanted to change one thing. I walked over to her so she could see the camera lcd for herself. As she began flipping through the photos, she came across some photos that I had shot a few days earlier. The lcd images started spelling out the words “annie, will you…” and I got down on one knee.

Annie and I are happy to announce that we are now engaged.  When we first started dating, we went to Santa Barbara as one of our first weekend getaway trips. We were young and still getting used to the idea of dating each other – everything was fresh with butterflied stomachs in anticipation of what was too come.  Now years later, we find ourselves at the same place.  Maybe not quite strangers to each other this time, but still with butterflied stomachs, hopelessly excited for what the future holds.

Here are a few photos from the day. It’s funny, how plans work sometimes. I had this romantic vision in my head, but when we got to Los Olivos it was close to a hundred degrees, flying bugs took a liking to every step that Annie took, and I was paranoid that I was hearing rattlesnakes everywhere. Hah, I had a bit of a more romanticized vision in my head but somethings in life you don’t get to decide. I guess in the grander scheme of things, it didn’t really matter. At that moment which we uttered a tiny amount of words, all the other larger worries quickly faded away.

We took a few instax polaroids and tripoded photos to remember the moment, and then we headed off to enjoy the rest of our weekend getaway in Santa Barbara. A special thanks to Jose for sharing with me where to find open meadows in Los Olivos and a thanks to my jewelers (Jon and Erica & Grace) for helping me make this day complete.