Marin Headlands Engagement | Erin + Max

I had planned to arrive early that day. The weather report called for 70 degrees and sunny skies but of course, with Karl and San Francisco summers, you never know. And then there it was: Karl wrapped itself around Golden Gate Bridge like a cold blanket. Still, I continued to drive towards Marin in hopes of better luck. As I made my way into Marin Headlands, I looked up and noticed the dramatic change from fog to sunshine. Yes! A patch of sunshine, thank you, weather gods! The sky opened up just for us. Today is the perfect day for a Marin Headlands engagement session. It was particularly important that we had a Marin Headlands engagement, because Erin and Max were going to get married at Marin Arts Center. It was the perfect way to round out their wedding story.

Shortly after I did my little happy dance, there they were pulling up in the car next to me looking fly and dapper as ever: Erin and Max. Erin was feeling a bit under the weather that day, but I couldn’t help but notice how oh-so-gorgeous she looked in her white lace dress (thank you Anthropologie!) and Max looked handsome and dapper as ever, dressed in a collared green shirt and a big smile. After I briefed them on the plan for the session, Max slyly gestures us towards the trunk of the car where he unveiled… a bottle of tequila. Honestly, it wasn’t the first time a couple had a drink before a shoot to calm the nerves, but it was the first time a couple has asked me to take one with them. After contemplating it for maybe a second, I thought, “hell, let’s do it!” So then we knocked back our shots and made our way towards our first location.

Have you ever met that couple where you know that if you were a fly on the wall at their apartment, you’d see that they’d be laughing nonstop and watching each other instead of the TV? That’s Erin and Max. Not too long after we began, I was already in awe of how unapologetically head over heels in love they were with each other. They would laugh, dance, kiss, hug, and flirt with each other; it felt almost as if I wasn’t there and they were in their own little world. Their chemistry was something that was natural, I thought to myself, “how lucky are they to have found each other?” Quick rewind to our coffee date 2 weeks prior when I learned the story of how they met. They had met through a dating site called OK Cupid. Erin had first noticed Max’s profile and thought, “hey he’s cute, and he cares about the world.” Side note: Max is the co-founder and CEO of the Creative Action Network, a company that curates designed goods from independent artists while also promoting worthy social causes. In the telling of this story, Erin had said that this was during a time in her life when she had begun to want to take a break from online dating, but she had thought to herself, “why not just go on one last date?”

And one last first date indeed. 

Thank you to Erin and Max for letting me into your world for an afternoon. You guys are such a sweet couple and I absolutely can’t wait to photograph your beautiful wedding at Marin Arts Center next June!