Most of you probably heard about the huge fires in California last month. My heart goes out to all the people who lost their homes, belongings and more and I’m so grateful for the rain and the hardworking firefighters that have helped contain the fire. Even though we were hours away, the Bay Area had many days of with a ton of smoke and haze. We almost rescheduled Brad and Irene’s engagement session, which was the weekend after the fires first broke out. I’m glad we didn’t because not only did all the smoke and haze make an incredibly dreamy Half Moon Bay engagement session, the air quality got even worse the next weekend.

Brad and Irene met back in MIT via a shared math class that was actually one of Irene’s least favorite classes! Luckily, thanks to Brad, she has mostly fond memories of that class now, haha! Brad proposed via a mini puzzle hunt, which sounded like the coolest thing ever. They are both escape room fans (which I also love… if you’re looking for a good escape room in the Bay Area, definitely check out Palace Games!), so a puzzle hunt proposal was a perfect choice.

We met up in Half Moon Bay for this session and despite there being no true golden hour, the light was actually perfect! Our location was fairly rocky and meant I was a little limited in my movements, so I was glad to have beautiful, even light. I’m totally going to overshare on this session, because I am still dying over how adorable Brad and Irene are! We had such a good time chatting about their upcoming Cathedral Grove wedding at Saratoga Springs next year! I’m particularly excited to see their flowers, as Irene is considering either making her own flowers out of sola wood or perhaps ordering some paper flowers. Of course, I recommended the amazing Jessie of Crafted To Bloom because I would LOVE to photograph one of her bouquets, but either way, I’m excited. It’s going to be amazing <3