San Francisco Engagement Session
San Francisco is one of my favorite cities to visit. I first visited in 2020, and I got to go back again in 2024 for Danaye and Seth’s wedding and engagement photos. All the art, the beautiful succulents, that refreshing coastal air, the Dungeness crab chowder bowls at Boudin… I could make a whole blog post about why San Francisco is a great city (and I might later, who knows) but I digress. Danaye and Seth are originally from the midwest, which is where they had intended to marry until they saw my Bucket List! We hit it off right away and I immediately went into full planning mode. Call me the Master of Lists (because I made many.) This was my first cross-country wedding and I’m still really proud of it. Danaye and Seth allowed me full creative freedom with the planning, for both the wedding and engagement photos, and for that I’m so grateful.
The itinerary was jam packed, but straight forward. I’d fly out to San Francisco with my second photographer for five days. Day one is always a buffer day because travel delays are unfortunately common, so this prevents missing any key events in the timeline. Day two was their engagement session, which took all afternoon and a lot of delicious trail mix. Day three I would meet with the coordinator to go over the timeline and tour the venue. Day four was their wedding day!! And day five was departure day. There was hardly an hour left unaccounted for on my end.
We started the day bright and early, meeting Danaye and Seth at a spot special to them—Bernal Hill. When they moved to San Francisco, Bernal Hill was the first spot they ran to, so it was a sentimental spot we all wanted to include in the engagement session. You can actually see Bernal Hill from their house! After Bernal Hill, Seth drove us all in their rental (they are proud to not own a car and I think that’s so cool) to Lover’s Lane. Back when the forts were still active, the men enlisted would walk this specific path up to the city to go and visit their lovers (fun fact as to how the name came to be!) Lover’s Lane is pretty limited in the variety available, so we didn’t stop there for long before heading over the Golden Gate Bridge and venturing into the Marin Headlands. After a surprisingly long one-way drive, we ended up at Kirby Cove—truly, a beautiful beach and camp spot, just be mindful on the walk down, or you might fall and Eat It, like me! :-) We explored, we splashed, and after a much needed refuel with some trail mix we headed over to the Palace of Fine Arts—not initially part of the plan, but we love a good ad-lib! The Palace of Fine Arts does a great job at making you feel small, and there’s free parking! The engagement session ended there, but we did not part ways until after introducing Danaye and Seth to the magic that is Boudin. If you love tender, sweet crab or sourdough whose starter is 175 years old, do not miss this spot! It was such a pleasure getting to show them this hidden (to them) gem and share a meal at one of my favorite restaurants. I was complimented on the engagement session, saying I sounded like a local because of how knowledgeable I was about the area. It was great to hear all my planning translated well.
Danaye and Seth were troopers throughout the whole engagement session. Everything was green lighted by them beforehand, but I’m still so grateful they were game to run all over the city, trusting the itinerary I worked so hard on. It paid off. Their engagement session was beautiful! It was so sunny and warm out. I felt like I had brought all the sunshine with me from the midwest. Since all of us are originally from the Midwest, the California heat was no joke. While packing for the trip, I made sure to ask what kind of weather I should pack for. Having only been there once before, but later in the season, I wanted to cover every single base. The consensus was foggy and windy, and I concurred. Unsurprisingly, it was windy (my hair has never air-dried so fast in my life, wow!) but the fog was basically nowhere to be seen—save for one instance right when we got to the Marin Headlands. The entire trip blessed us with lovely weather. It was a welcome surprise!
I still love this session to this day. Thank you again to Danaye and Seth again for trusting me with all the logistics, and the succulent you sent me home with! The plant survived the flight home and is thriving on its shelf with my other plants.
