And the Winner is.....

I must say, I have never had an outcome as enormous as this with the Engagement Contest! I can't thank you enough for sharing this contest, bringing people over to my page to not only vote, but to spread my work and love for photography. I thank each and every one of you!!!

And now...the winning couple for the Free Engagement Session is.....

Sara and Abel

Congratulations you two!! I can't wait to meet you both and come up with something fantastic for your Engagement shoot! I'll speak with you this week :)

As for all the other couples, thank you for participating. No worries, you are also winners! Email me at veronica@veronicahudleydesigns.com for something special :)

Thank you all again and congrats to the beautiful couple!

Stay tuned for more contests!

2013 Engagement Contest

Happy New Year!!! Let's begin 2013 with some excitement! And what better than an Engagement Contest!

As mentioned above, all you need to do is post a photo of you and your sweetie on my Facebook Fanpage www.facebook.com/VeronicaHudleyDesigns. The deadline to post your photos will be Sunday, January 27 at 11:59 p.m. PST. Voting will begin Monday, January 28 and will end Monday, February 4. So be sure to have your family and friends head over to my page to vote for you! The winner will be announced here on my blog!

And to throw more excitement your way, here's some photos from my first Engagement Contest with Katy and Ray at Baker Beach in San Francisco. Katy's mom nominated them and I'm so glad she did! Check them out...

Spread the word!!

Anna + Jesse's Engagement in St. Helena + Calistoga

I can't tell you how excited I am for Anna + Jesse's wedding next year. You all may not know, but Anna is the artistic hands behind a couple of my previous bride's beautiful faces and hair. Yes, she does fabulous makeup and hair styles. She is definitely a true artist and you can tell she pours her heart into everything she does. So when she came to me to photograph her wedding, of course I said yes!

Anna + Jesse have been together for five years, but have known each other forEVER! Anna's mother used to do Jesse's grandma's hair. She would tag along and be "the annoying little girl." Lol...

As they grew older, they went to the same parties and noticed each other more. One day Jesse asked for her number and the rest is sweet history... 

Next year Anna + Jesse will be tying the knot in their hometown of Brentwood. Until then, here's how their engagement session went down. 

We first met at Rombauer Vineyards in St. Helena to take some photos at their signature R gate. Jesse's last name begins with an R, so this was special to them.

Anna, you're so beautiful! You too, Jesse :)

We then made our way to Calistoga. First stop was Chateau Montelena Winery. We waited for the swan to pass near the bridge, but apparently the swan was having a diva moment. Lol.. Then we headed to Castello di Amorosa to snap some photos around the castle.

Very Twilight-esque :)

See the video of their engagement session Anna + Jesse {Engagement}.

Fall Mini Sessions - Couples Edition

Email me at veronica@veronicahudleydesigns.com to book your session.

**Look out for Fall Mini Sessions - Family Style coming soon!

Lorena + Alex - A Stow Lake Engagement

I arrived at Stow Lake early to scout out the area. I've never been there before and wanted to find the good spots, or at least the spots that came up on Google images. After an hour, or so, of walking around, I had no success in finding those spots.

Lorena and Alex finally arrived and we jumped right into their session. Well, only because the waterfall was right there as we were walking in. :)

Lorena's sister, Adela, actually did her makeup for this session. Didn't she do great?! I'm loving the wind that blew through her hair on this one. High five, Mother Nature!

I may have mentioned this in my sneak peek post, but the way that Alex proposed to Lorena was simply romantic! He had a brick engraved at the new Dallas Cowboys Stadium with the proposal. The day they went to Dallas to watch a game, Alex was stuck trying to find the location of the brick, while Lorena struggled to stay cool in the hot Texas heat. Here's a replica of the proposal brick.

Stow Lake had some really cool spots, like this huge branch that made a perfect arch.

And this bridge!

Lorena + Alex plan on getting married next Spring/Summer. I can't wait! I'm beginning to feel like I'm a part of their family :)

Here's a little video of their engagement session.

Day 29...Almost done + Another sneak peek

Wow...30 days almost done. Whew! Where has the time gone? Doesn't it seem like the days go by quicker as we get older? Ugh...

Anyhow... I'm soooooo in LOVE with my photos from Lorena and Alex's Stow Lake engagement session that I'd like to post another sneak peek :)

Watch out....here comes the cutest story EVER!!!! The brick above...that's how Alex proposed to Lorena. They both LOVE the Dallas Cowboys. A few years ago when the Cowboys built a new stadium, he bought a brick and had the above engraved. As they traveled to Texas to attend a game, Alex was staring at the ground trying to find the brick while Lorena suffered from the heat. Lol! I feel ya Lorena, I hate the heat!

Anyhow, he found it and proposed to her. :) Isn't that SOOOOO sweet?? He thought engraving a brick at the Cowboys stadium would be great for their future kids and grand kids to visit. Ugh...Alex, you're such a romantic! :)

And because Alex is the cutest...

It was supposed to be a "serious" photo, but he couldn't stop laughing. It's okay though because I LOVE laughing photos :)

Day 26...A Stow Lake Engagement Sneak Peek

As promised from yesterday's post, here's a sneak peek of today's engagement session with Lorena and Alex at Stow Lake, using the lenses I rented.

This first photo I REALLY LOVE!! The fog started to roll in and they wanted to change outfits because it was getting chilly. Thank goodness I asked if we could do one more pose because this is what I got. This was shot with the Tamron 24-70mm at 46mm, ISO 1000 @ 2.8, 1/2500 sec.

Lorena and Alex stepped out on the dock in their second outfit which I shot with the Canon 70-200mm at 70mm, ISO 1000 @ 4.0, 1/1250 sec.

It was such a great session today. I'll definitely post more! Stay tuned :)

Tomorrow is their big day...

Last month I had the pleasure of photographing Adela and Luis for their engagement photos. They chose Santa Cruz for their location, which I was happy to do because the last time I was there was when I was little. It worked out well because for one thing it was my birthday, and it sounded way better to spend the day in Santa Cruz doing a photo shoot than just sitting at home waiting to go to dinner and a movie. :)

Another reason why it sounded fun was because I wanted to take the boys to the beach. I'll save that portion for another post, but may I just say that they loved it!

Back to the happy couple...

The first portion of their session was photographing around the boardwalk. It was a Saturday, so there were TOO MANY people there. We had to resort to taking photos on the outside of the boardwalk.

The second half of the session was photographed on the beach. This was the fun part :)

Here comes the water...

The splash looks harmless and small, right?

Adela laughing at the water...

Adela's reaction to that harmless splash drenching me with water. :)

Adela and Luis, thank you for that fun, interesting day :) I am very honored to be photographing your wedding tomorrow. Yay!! :)

Hope everyone else has a great weekend! :)