"We decided to drive down to San Luis Obispo from San Mateo to meet Danielle for our engagement session. We knew she had great ideas for outdoor locations there. We were a little bit nervous to get our photos taken - we normally just take pictures of scenery and our dog. Danielle made us feel so comfortable right away and the photo session was so much fun! First we went to a field full of sweet pea flowers - the colors were stunning. After changing by the side of the car and climbing over the barbed wire fence we were finally ready to take pictures. Danielle made it so easy to "pose" and we felt totally comfortable. After that we headed to the coast for some ocean pictures with our dog Tucker. We hiked over to the edge of a cliff and Danielle took some more pictures. As expected, Tucker was completely rambunctious but Danielle managed to get some great shots of him! We love those pictures. The whole thing was so much fun and we can't wait to work with Danielle again at our wedding!" -The couple
Photo credit: Danielle Capito Photography
Their love story: We met at the Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole, Massachusetts. I was attending a cell physiology course for the summer as part of my graduate research and Chris was working for Zeiss doing microscopy support for the research scientists and courses at the MBL. One afternoon I was scheduled to do microscope training and got lucky enough to have Chris as my teacher. Later that week I got Chris's number from a business card he had left at the microscope and sent him a text to see if he wanted to grab a beer at the local bar in town. He said yes (I guess he thought I was cute too)! We hung out almost every night after that for the seven weeks that I was at the MBL until I had to go back to Stanford. We knew we had something really special. Chris was really persistent and came to visit me in California several times that fall, sent me flowers when he was away, and totally won me over even though he was 3000 miles away! Chris requested to be transferred to San Francisco and that March Zeiss found a position for him out here in the Bay Area. I moved in with Chris shortly after and we have been beyond happy ever since!
The proposal: Chris proposed to me in February at Pfeiffer Beach in Big Sur while we were camping for the weekend . We had arrived on Friday evening and set up camp. Saturday morning we drove down Highway 1 to do some hiking and see some of the beautiful waterfalls in the area. On our way back to the camp site to cook dinner we took a detour down a narrow, 2-mile-long dirt road to hang out at Pfeiffer Beach before the sun went down. Pfieffer Beach is secluded by cliffs on all sides and has beautiful tan and purple sand that comes from garnet rock. Chris had carried the ring around in his day pack all day! We were enjoying the ocean view when Chris popped the question. My first response was “you tricked me!” because I was so surprised :D I of course said yes many many times after that! We can't wait to share Big Sur with our families on the East Coast for our November wedding.
