Lauren & Jeff | Beautiful Crown Memorial State Beach Sunset Engagement Photos

Lauren & Jeff did a loooooot of homework before our engagement session. (Okay, it was mostly Lauren.) She had looked through a lot of our past engagement shoots and had her eye on some Sutro Baths shots, especially those beautiful reflections that can be seen in the still pools of water. But there was one problem (actually many problems): Sutro Baths is always cold, windy, and crowded… and often foggy on top of that. Lauren even visited Sutro Baths and discovered all of the above in person, plus got the added bonus of the cold, wet wind not playing nicely with her hair.

They ended up finding a place that didn’t have all those problems yet still offered opportunities to get some nice reflections: the Grand Marina in Alameda. So we met up at the Marina, got a little warmed up, and took some photos we were happy with before heading over to Crown Memorial State Beach for sunset engagement photos.

Lauren had actually done some homework here too. She had found a patch of yellow grass way over in a corner of the park, which we had never noticed even though we were there literally the day before. We got some photos here under a sun-lit tree, and the way the sun’s rays beamed through the gaps and lit them up was just perfect. I think if the shoot ended here, we would have been thrilled with the results.

With sunset quickly approaching, we headed down to the actual beach. The appropriate celestial bodies had aligned that day to give us low tide, leaving shallow, standing pools of water reflecting the colorful sunset sky. We couldn’t contain our excitement for the next 20 minutes because this scene was just out of this world! It looked as if Jeff & Lauren were walking on water, and we’re absolutely in love with the sky, the water, the colors, and of course, the stars of the show, our lovely couple 🙂

We’re still recovering from our excitement over how amazingly everything worked out that day. For us, this was an incredibly rewarding photo shoot, and for Lauren & Jeff, I think their preparation really paid off.

They’re getting married next year at a winery, which will be a totally different kind of beautiful setting, and we can’t wait!