Colleen & Eddie | Redlands Engagement

If I were asked what would be my top five engagement sessions ever, this one would certainly rank among those numbers. Not only because the bride to be is a really sweet friend, but because I can’t remember when I had more fun and laughed so much during any kind of shoot!

Colleen met Eddie through her brother (also another of my friends) who happened to attend the same church as Colleen’s now betrothed. It was on a breezy group trip to the Getty Center where the strapping Eddie laid eyes on the fair Colleen and was very impressed by her beauty and grace. As she wrestled her brother…. down to the ground. (True story!)

Colleen’s love for the Lord, wit, humor, and immense beauty inside and out are what led Eddie to propose to her on her birthday in April. There they were, under the glorious blue skies and crystal waters of Catalina Island, and Eddie asked Colleen to close her eyes as he presented the best present he could have given her– a ring and his request for her to accept his proposal. Just the two of them, as perfect as Colleen could ever have prayed for, and staring back at her was as perfect a man that God could ever have provided.

And fast forward to my two hours spent with this amazing couple, which to me wasn’t enough time! They were pressed for another event that night but I could have clicked my shutter for much longer, although I have a feeling it would be pretty tough to properly capture the love they both exude for each other. I’m hoping I came even minutely close.

And now, on to the photos! We started our day at the grounds of the University of Redlands:

And the laughing began pretty much instantaneously:

I love this scripture Colleen chose to represent their feeling of JOY:

Her gorgeous ring:

Here’s a good sample of that LOVE I’m referring to:

The next three photos works in this sequence.. a) I asked them to look down at the paper with happy big smiles b) Eddie proceeds to say “Hello!” to the paper as if it were a cute little 2 year old baby c) Colleen and I laugh so hard and I wonder how I kept my camera as steady as I did!

We couldn’t really stop laughing so I just told them to drop it:

And focus on each other:

Yeah I went a little crazy with the signs but they humored my craziness anyway:

So I told them to ignore me again and focus on each other:

It wasn’t really that hard for them to comply:

After a quick wardrobe change:

What else but more laughter!

Colleen has an affinity for all things French, so we incorporated her super swanky Eiffel Tower into these shots:

And some quiet time:

I love this first photo of Eddie. It looks like he’s thinking “God, how did I get so blessed to have this woman?” And the second photo makes me think she’s thinking the same thing about him:

Okay so the story behind the first one is that I cleverly asked Eddie to stand over the Y in “your” to make “our”. Then Eddie saw the other part of the ground mural and positioned himself and Colleen to make it read… well, see for yourself:

Haha these next three are too fun!

Colleen loves theater and music as I do, but she performs both, ten times better than I could ever hope to do:

Had to get the comedy and tragedy masks in of course:

We traveled down the street to the Redlands Bowl / Redlands Amphitheater to get some more stage-d shots. Get it? :)
I’ll tell you how wonderful these two are to let me get away with my creativeness.. these seats were scorching hot but they let me get my shot anyway!

So to show my apologies we moved down to a cooler area… right on the stage:

They didn’t have a hard time “acting” out :)

Gotta love that laughter!

They also humored my crazy props (if you haven’t already noticed):

The next two say it all!

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Colleen, thank you for being an amazing example of what a Godly woman truly is, I am SO thrilled you found the man of your dreams. Eddie I'm so glad you ended up the one for my sweet friend. Thank you for the fun times, I can’t wait for your wedding!!

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