Happy holidays, everyone! A few days before Christmas, I got a wonderful gift in my email inbox: our engagement photos!

Before the shoot, I spent a lot of time picturing a cozy and wintery shoot. This was easy to imagine while in blustery San Francisco, but when we arrived in San Luis Obispo (a town near the beach in central California), we found ourselves in gorgeous, 70 degree weather!

That didn’t stop us from cuddling up at a coffee shop and wearing cozy sweaters. I’m SOO happy with the photos and couldn’t be more excited for Ken to shoot our wedding! It is wonderful to have these casual, personal photos to commemorate this happy moment in our lives.

We started off at an eclectic coffee shop downtown.

We then headed to a gorgeous bluff overlooking Avila Beach and the ocean.

Photographer: Ken Kienow

I would highly recommend taking engagement photos, if not to capture this happy moment, then at least to get to know your photographer. Now he will be at the wedding as a friend versus a stranger. Plus, we got a little bit of experience being in front of the camera, an experience that can take some getting used to.

Anyone else have great engagement photo ideas or experiences?