Photographing your best friends engagement session – could it get any better? The answer is actually yes because we decided to do their beach engagement session in Malibu at El Matador Beach!Â
Why the beach?
Daniel and Tori are the biggest beach people. Not only have the chosen Cabo for their destination wedding this year, but Tori’s family spends about a month of their summer in South Padre each year! It was a no brainer to capture them in the place they love spending time together the most.
Our Days Together at UT
Tori and I met in college while attending The University of Texas at Austin when we both decided to join the group Texas Sweethearts. It’s one of the many spirit groups at UT, but I’m so glad I joined with all of the friends it brought me! We were roommates during my junior and senior year and soon after moving in together she told me that there was a Texas Wrangler (the equivalent to our group but for guys) that had caught her eye. After Tori and Daniel made it official on the New Years Eve of my junior year, he basically became our third roommate and we all got very close. It has been such a sweet treat to watch their relationship grow from the beginning!
Getting to the Session at El Matador Beach
For our stay, we chose Viceroy hotel in Santa Monica. It was a bit of a drive to get to the beach for the session, but so worth it because it was surrounded by amazing restaurants! We even felt the drive was worth because it was so pretty and we find a fun bar of the Pacific Coast Highway. Gladstones was the perfect place for a few quick tequila shots to help calm their nerves and then we jammed to their favorite music – Maluma, Bazzi – until we made it to the beach.
Tips for Your Beach Engagement Session
While it brought us lots of laughs, if you are planning for a beach session, make sure to pack a towel! At the end of the session, we realized that we forgot a towel to wipe our sand soaked feet. So with lots of laughs, we hiked back up to the parking lot barefoot.
