Luster Studios » North Carolina Photographers Craig Carpenter

I’ve just returned from a California engagement session with Laura and Nan in San Francisco. They chose me to photograph their wedding in Raleigh, NC but had their heart set on having their engagement photos taken near the Golden Gate Bridge and the surrounding Presidio. Sure! We can do that! I must confess that out of all of the California cities that I photograph in, the San Francisco is one of my favorites. I usually explore the Bay area by foot and love the fact that each neighborhood has it’s own culture and flavor. The food, clothing and diverse groups of people create a perfect blend no matter where I go. The first time that I visited, I walked north to Chinatown and The Fisherman’s Wharf (from Union Square) and then all the way south to The Mission District. I then cut over to the Golden Gate Park and back to my hotel downtown. Trust me when I say that each block looked a lot smaller on the map! By the time I got back I was finding it pretty difficult to walk up and down the steep hills.

For this session we decided to take a car. I have A LOT of respect for Nan because his bravery on the downtown San Francisco streets with a manual transmission is un”parallel”ed… just like his parking. :) If you’ve ever seen the grade on some of the roads you know what I mean! Riding in the car with them also allowed us to chat about their background and the story about how they met. I had to fill in a few of the details on my return but this is their story.

They met many years ago in the 8th grade right here in Raleigh and were close friends for several years. They started dating their senior year of high school, always assuming they would break up before going to college. Unfortunately they did. As Laura continued on to UNC, Nan’s road led him to Stanford. They would see each other over holidays for a few years and then on the first Christmas after college, Nan asked Laura (mostly joking) if she wanted to go to Europe. She called his bluff and to make a long story short, they rekindled their relationship and spent 3 weeks traveling around Europe that summer.

Afterwards, Laura began working as a Microbiologist for a pharmaceutical company in RTP and Nan as a web designer for Facebook in California. The long distance relationship was a challenge, but also meant that they were able to take more vacations together since at least one of us was going to have to travel to visit the other anyway. I shared with them that I had a similar experience with my wife since we had to “do the long distance thing too” for a few years before we got married.

In 2008 one of their vacations led them to Hawaii and Japan. How cool is it to have those as your back to back vacation destinations? This tuly is a jetset couple! Soon after they also traveled to New Orleans and then on to a cruise to Cozumel in February 2009. Then Nan popped the big question… This time he wasn’t kidding… and this time Laura had no doubt in her answer… YES!

They shared with me that a few people have jokingly commented that proposing on a cruise wasn’t a good idea… saying “what if Laura had said no?” In this case it was perfect because they had already chatted about getting engaged. On top of that it was perfect for them because they both really enjoyed being isolated from their friends and families for a few days so they could just enjoy being together before coming back and telling everybody.

When I asked them what their favorite part of the session was, they told me that they loved running through the surf on the beach. The water was cold, but said they had a lot of fun. Laura also shared that the water felt really good on my feet after walking so much. Perhaps I’ll follow that advise next time I decide to hike through the entire city. I’m so glad everything is turning out so perfectly for them and am looking forward to photographing their wedding next year.

UPDATE: CLICK HERE to view the wedding photos.