K and C moved to the Bay Area last summer and fell in love with the beautiful views on all the hiking trails. Their favorite hiking trail is Russian Ridge, which is also one of my favorites, so I was super excited when they reached out asking about an engagement session at Russian Ridge. You might be wondering why this blog post is titled Monte Bello engagement session instead, which is a bit of a long story! We actually had to reschedule this engagement session many times because of the ridiculously rainy winter and spring we’ve had here in the Bay Area.

We were originally supposed to have the session in April before I left for Europe. We even got so far as driving all the way to Russian Ridge before cancelling because of the drizzle and fog! It was crazy because the weather was beautiful down in Sunnyvale. We rescheduled for a weekday, since my weekends are booked up with weddings, but it’s been raining in mid-May as well! Who would have thought? On the day of the session, the skies were completely clear and beautiful the entire day, so I excitedly emailed Kristin saying I’d see her in an hour and that the weather looked gorgeous! As I started driving up, when I was about ten minutes from the top of the hills, I saw the fog begin the roll in. By then time I got all the way up to Russian Ridge, there wasn’t a hint of sunshine and we could barely see ten feet in front of us! K and C’s car actually had rain droplets on it and it felt like total deja vu. We ended up driving down the hill to Monte Bello Open Space Preserve, because it had still been a bit sunny when I drove past it on my way up.

The light was a bit of a struggle, as the sun kept going in and out of the fog, but it ended up absolutely beautiful and I adore the photos we got! PSA: if you are up in the hills, make sure you check for ticks afterwards! I woke up and found a tick on my shoulder (luckily it hadn’t bitten me!) and C found one on his shirt as well.

 

I am fully booked for 2019 weddings (unless there is the absolute perfect wedding that comes by!), but I am still taking on a handful more engagement and anniversary sessions, so please contact me or email me at alice@aliceche.com so we can get it on the books!