Holly and Butch • Catalina Island Engagement Session

June 24, 2016

Holly and Butch happened to meet 5 years ago after growing up in homes a few miles apart. They were both living in Utah and Butch was about to leave to work on a small little island off the coast of Southern California. Even though they were just friends, they stayed in touch as much as possible, which led to Holly getting a summer job on the island. She fell for him the moment she arrived. After moving back home and a year of long distance, Holly decided to join him on the island full time. They currently live on a very rural part of Catalina with only 50 full-time residents. Holly says it has its challenges but is also so rewarding. When Butch decided to propose last Valentines Day, he dropped to one knee with one of the most beautiful views behind him as their “island family” hid in the bushes taking pictures.

The day of their engagement session started with my husband Sam and I taking the boat over to Catalina. We spent a couple hours doing tourist things around the city of Avalon while we waited for Holly and Butch to arrive. They live closer to Twin Harbors, the other “big” city on the island, which is about an hour and a half away.  From the moment they picked us up, we knew we were in for an adventure! Parts of the Catalina require passes to get into so we were able to explore the most secluded parts of the island. Our goal was to drive across to the beach on the opposite end and stop wherever looked interesting along the way. I had to stop myself from saying “STOP HERE!!” every 5 minutes… We were able to see some of the highest peaks of the island and then hike down to completely private beaches. One hike required us to go off-trail so we didn’t disturb the BISON (!!) in our path (see if you can find him in the background of a few photos!) The entire time Holly and Butch were full of so much joy and giddy anticipation of their wedding day. And while they claimed to be awkward in front of the camera, I didn’t believe them for a second. Just our few hours shooting together (plus an ice cream stop before our boat ride back to the “main land”) left me absolutely obsessed with them and their amazing island life. I can’t wait for our next adventure out there for their wedding weekend this December!

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See that brown spot to the left of Butch? That’s the Bison!

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And another bison friend to end our adventure. This was taken from the window of the car!

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What a fun place to shoot! Beautiful!

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