March 26th, 2012:

Blog post by Felicia;

We met Katie & Clay last year at Matt and Amber’s wedding, just a few weeks after Clay popped the question. We’ve been corresponding for a while now about their wedding photography, but when we finally met them again last week for engagement photos, their arrival was like a scene out of a movie: As Felicia and I stood in a dusty field in San Juan Capistrano, camera gear by our sides, they pulled up simultaneously and parked, one on each side of us. Katie in her sleek black BMW, while Clay rocked up in a very sweet 1971 GTO. They stepped out, hair blowing in the wind, and flashed their megawatt smiles as they whipped off their sunglasses.

Complete rockstars. These two are almost too cool for us. Almost. Rob’s pretty damn cool, I think. So cool that we rock up in our VW Golf – hey, we get 35MPG but Clay’s GTO with 455 horsepower only gets 9. HA!

For all their awesomeness, Katie & Clay are incredibly down-to-earth and friendly. Rob and I had a blast with these two, and we just kept hanging out until the restaurant staff had all the chairs inverted on the tables and were scrubbing the floors. It was a not-so-subtle sign that it was time to go, but indeed a sign of how much we enjoyed their company!

Meet Beaucepheus, their 1-year-old “puppy”. Though he’s sitting still in this picture, Beau went completely berserk at one point when he seemed to smell a squirrel/gopher/ground marmot in the dirt. While we were taking pictures, Clay had him tethered to a large log, but that didn’t stop this dog: Beau ended up dragging the log as he ran around. He would give any Icelandic sled dog a run for their money.

I can totally see how Beaucepheus could completely rip the shifter out of Clay’s other car last week, to the extent that he needed the car towed, and shifter replaced. Ouch. Thankfully, during our shoot, Beau was on his best behavior, so nobody (or property) got hurt.

We ended the night at Monarch Beach, where Katie & Clay were very close to freezing to death as Rob made them stand still in the water for 15-second exposures. Thankfully, Clay’s a professional photographer too, so he knew what we were going for. They were such great sports for braving the wind and waves on this particularly chilly SoCal day.

Congrats Katie & Clay, and thanks for a wonderful day. We can’t wait to shoot your rustic-themed wedding this October!