Santa Barbara Sailboat Engagement Session from Chelsea Nicole Photography

Okay LBBers, the question at hand is this: What is more perfect than sailboats and puppies? The answer: Sailboats, puppies, and engaged love. You know the kind… the giddy, we’re about to spend the rest of our lives together, special kind of love that only gets better with time. So, obviously, it was a no brainer that I simply HAD to share this engagement session (complete with a sailboat and the cutest pup around) as soon as Chelsea Nicole Photography sent it our way. Oh yeah, and we filled up a gallery with all the engaged love, sailboats, and puppies. Just for you. You’re welcome.

Click here for the full gallery!

Derik and I met in October 2008. We met through mutual friends and we both new right away that there was something special about our relationship. We took our relationship slow and built a good foundation. I graduated from college in September 2010, and that is when he surprised me with an engagement. We had invited both our families to celebrate my graduation to Lake Tahoe for the weekend at Derik’s family’s lake house. I thought we were going outside to take family sunset pictures, and he surprised me in front of my family with a ring. Derik and I were engaged for 2 years before we got married.

I am a wedding planner in Northern California, but surprisingly it was hard to determine a style and location. I have seen so many options that I was confused about what our style was. We searched everywhere for a venue, from Mexico, San Diego, to Hawaii. Finally it hit us, Lake Tahoe is where we spend out summers boating and relaxing, and Derik proposed in Tahoe. We finally realized that we overlooked the most special place to us. Once we determined our venue, everything began to come together. One of the most important vendors to me was the photographer. I have met a lot of photographers in the industry, and again, I was at a loss for my style. I probably went through 100 photographer’s portfolios before I found Chelsea Nicole. When I saw her website, I knew right away she was the one. She has uniqueness and something special about her. She is creative and thinks outside the box. We met her early 2011, and loved her in person as well. She is such a positive person and her warm energy makes you feel great.

We waited to do our engagement shoot until closer to the wedding because Derik and I were both so busy with work. Chelsea was patient throughout the process and encouraged us to make sure we thought about the style of shoot we wanted. She sent us some great ideas and even a collage of pictures to inspire us. Chelsea really listens to your personal style and wishes. She incorporated pieces of us, and our ideas for the wedding, but also made it unique and different too.

For our engagement shoot we travelled to Santa Barbara, CA and met Chelsea and her sweet boyfriend Jayse to take our pictures on a sailboat. Derik and I love boating, and Santa Barbara is another special city, so we were really excited! Chelsea had us pose all over the boat, and we all almost fell in a few times! But it was so much fun! Chelsea goes after what she wants and has a way of not settling for anything less than the best. She even had the captain of the boat turn around a few times so that the lighting was perfect.

We ended our shoot on the beach with our dog Hurley. He was the real star of the show. The pictures that we got from this shoot are our family photos in a way. It is so special to have these great photos of the three of us.

Photography: Chelsea Nicole Photography