Oakland Redwoods Engagement Photos

Engagement

Sep 13

So excited that Edith and Julio’s engagement session is now live on the blog because they were the lucky winners from the engagement session giveaway I hosted this summer! So many couples shared their love stories, and I nearly teared at all of them! Yet, there was something about Edith and Julio’s story that really tugged at my heart, and I’d like to share their story (with their permission and edited for clarity):

My name is Edith and my fiancé, Julio, and I got engaged in 2016. We are actually middle school sweethearts ❤️. We met in 2009 [in middle school] when we were both 8th graders, and we began dating for a short time. We both ended up attending different high schools, so we decided to part ways. During our sophomore year of high school, we both experienced really traumatic events in our lives. He tragically lost a sibling and both my parents were deported back to their home country shortly after. It was during this difficult time in our lives that we reconnected after a whole year apart, and we’ve been together ever since.
During our senior year, we became pregnant with our daughter, Isabella, who is now 6 and shortly after, we had our son, Idan, who is now 5. We are both students at UC Berkeley— my fiancé graduated in 2019, and I’m still currently working on my undergraduate degree.
After five wonderful years together, Julio proposed to me at the beach in Puerto Vallarta when we were visiting my parents in Mexico. I was completely taken aback, but after so many years together and everything we had gone through, he is the love of my life and I cannot imagine not having him in my life. So of course I said yes! We began planning our wedding, which was set to take place March 21st, 2020.
Unfortunately, due to COVID-19, the Bay Area Shelter-In-Place shutdown was ordered one week away from our wedding. We had to cancel all of our wedding plans that we had been eagerly looking forward to. We were deeply heartbroken at the time, but the more that time passed by, we thought about how everything in life happens for a reason. We were happy and extremely lucky to have our health, and everyone in our family has been okay so far, which is more than we could ask for. We look forward to continuing with our wedding plans as soon as it is safe to do so.
For the time being, we have been homeschooling our kids, and I’ve been finishing up with my school assignments. Due to the virus, I lost my job, so now only my fiancé is working. With everything we spent on the wedding, there was no way we could afford an engagement shoot even before the virus, much less now. To give you a better understanding of our financial situation, we aren’t even having a photographer at our wedding because there is no way we can afford it.
Winning this giveaway would just mean everything to us, and it would reaffirm that everything happens for a reason. Thank you for your time in reading our story and thank you for this amazing giveaway!

Alright, who else teared?! 😭 Y’all, when I met up with Edith and Julio at the Redwoods Park in Oakland, I knew that they were my kinda people. We laughed at the same things, and they’re also foodies!!! What’s super cool is that Julio is a part of his family’s business called Joe’s Honey. They’re a local family business that can be found at the farmer’s market in Hayward. Please support them and get honey from an awesome family who knows their bees and bee knowledge.

To Edith & Julio— thank you a million times for your kind hearts and fun laughs. Thank you for trusting me in documenting a small part of your love story. After hearing how you two have grown individually and together from middle school to adulthood (with children!), it is clear that you are a wonderful symbol of love and partnership. Wishing you all the joy and laughter to you both! ❤❤❤