I met Shannon and Steve in Santa Barbara. They had contacted me because they are getting married next year at the Rincon Beach Club in Carpenteria, one of my favorite locations. The religious ceremony will take place in the wonderful and amazing Santa Barbara Mission. I can’t wait for this day!! I love Santa Barbara because the weather is perfect and every location is amazing for photos. In this post you will see images that we captured at the Santa Barbara Botanical Gardens and Santa Barbara City Hall.
As a tradition, in my blog, I love to tell you how my couples met. Here is how Steve proposed to Shannon.. So here is what Shannon wrote:
“Steve and I met on a trip to Avila Beach on the Central Coast in March 2010. We were both chipping in to help some mutual friends with the planning of their summer wedding. One of my best friends from high school had gone to Cal Poly San Luis Obispo with Steve, but we had somehow never happened to meet each other until that weekend. One night, our group of friends decided to play a game similar to charades, and Steve and I ended up on the same team. Even though we were both shy, we had a really fun time together. However, since we were living four hours away from each other, we went our separate ways that night.
Fast forward to the wedding four months later. As soon as I saw Steve that night, something clicked. I remember thinking to myself how great he looked all dressed up, and I liked his unique style. I noticed him throughout the evening and had this strange sense that we were somehow connected. At the end of the night, we ended up standing next to each other as guests were forming a tunnel to send off the bride and groom. Steve was joking around with his friend, and we happened to make eye contact. It was a very special moment, and I went home from that wedding knowing that I had to contact Steve somehow.
I got the courage to add Steve on Facebook and sent him a message asking if he remembered me from the wedding and from Avila Beach. I was so excited when he emailed me back and admitted he had a crush on me that very first night playing charades! We hit it off immediately, and spent a month sending long emails back and forth. It was amazing how many things we found out we had in common. Steve had recently moved to Monterey, which was seven hours away from Riverside, where I was living, but we arranged to have our first date in Santa Barbara, since it was about half way for both of us. Steve asked me to meet him at the Santa Barbara Zoo, and then he took me to lunch, to the beach, and finally to the Botanical Gardens. At the end of the night, he asked me to be his girlfriend. I had never been so happy in my entire life.
We knew right from the beginning that what we had was very special and that we wanted to be together forever. When it came time for the official proposal, Steve re-created our first date in Santa Barbara. We had been driving up to visit his parents for the weekend, and he wanted to stop for old time’s sake. He took me to the zoo again, to the same place we had eaten lunch that very first day, to the beach, and finally to the Botanical Gardens. He asked me to marry him on a scenic little bridge overlooking the gardens. It was very beautiful, so naturally we thought to return to that same spot yet again for our engagement photo session. We are so very excited to begin our new life together. Thank you, Gloria, for agreeing to be there with us to capture our wedding day!”
Thank you so much Steve and Shannon for spending a wonderful and exquisite day among trees and fresh air!
