Several years ago, Mauricio and I went on one of the best adventures of our lives to photograph Jen and Lani’s four-day Puerto Vallarta wedding at Playa Fiesta. That wedding remains one of our favorite experiences, and those two girls… well, I love them to pieces (and just wish I could be half as cool as they are).
We were overjoyed to see Jen and Lani bring a baby girl, Dakota, into this world on Halloween last year. A month before, Mauricio met up with them for this beautiful, unique maternity session at Lands End in San Francisco. They wanted the photos to be on the edgier side, hence the all-black clothing, which totally fits their personal aesthetic. After all, Lani is a musician, co-owns The Ivy Room music venue and bar in Albany, CA, and little Dakota can often be seen in band T-shirts and tiny Converse Chuck Taylor All-Stars.
“We wanted a really ethereal but rock ‘n’ roll vibe,” Jen told me. “We didn’t want the pictures to be too cutesy, because that’s not us. I felt so strong during my pregnancy, and I wanted that strong sexy vibe to come across with the bump photos.”
Jen and Lani are beautiful people inside and out, and this world is better off when people like them become parents. It wasn’t an easy road for them, which made it all the more rewarding when they saw their little girl for the first time.
“We were both so overwhelmed when we met her,” Jen said. “She was a true Scorpio from the second she arrived. She was so alert and gentle, and she just stared so intently at both of us like she had been waiting to meet us too. We fell in love with her, and fell in love with each other all over again in those first few moments of her life.”