Hello friends!

Today’s blog post is all about my recent trip to San Jose, California. My best friend of 7 years (and now boyfriend) lives out there. Spoiler alert, I fell in love with it and I am very excited to announce that I will already be moved into my new apartment there as you read this post!! I am incredibly excited for this new chapter of my life to start.

I spent two weeks in March out in the beautiful heart of Silicon Valley. It was more beautiful than I ever could have imagined - rolling hills, green foliage, bountiful sunshine, and best of all, I got to see my favorite person after a long 2 years apart.

To kick off the trip we went straight to Santa Cruz for a weekend getaway. I’ll have a separate blog post about that coming up very soon :) After that amazing weekend together, we made our way back to San Jose. I had an Airbnb in the west side of San Jose, in a beautiful home in the suburbs. Each day, I would drive around and visit a new location - I went to a variety of different wedding venues to see if I would be comfortable creating a new life there and bringing my photography business to California!

The first stop was the San Jose Heritage Rose Garden. It wasn’t fully in bloom yet, there were only a handful of roses that were peeking out, but it was still beautiful. It was a bright and sunny day, and people were picnicking and enjoying the spring weather there.

The next day I decided to cruise around, no destination in mind. I ended up driving to an incredible place called Saratoga. It is a cute, quaint town with restaurants and ice cream shops, and it’s all uphill on a slant. Once you cut through the town, you arrive in the mountains, following winding roads past wineries and oak trees. Saratoga is one of my favorite places I have ever been to… the scenery was absolutely breathtaking, and for a moment I had to stop and pull over to take in how beautiful this place really was. Some of my favorite memories were driving around in this old Avalon pictured below. :)

The next day was filled with exploring wedding venues out in silicon valley. I wanted to get a feel for what the venues are like out there, and I certainly did. They are all absolutely gorgeous, and so very different from the venues in Chicago that I’m used to. There is so much more natural light and vegetation, and most of them were on top of hills overlooking the mountains.

I went to a few venues in the morning, and then decided to take a small break to stop and smell the roses - literally - on the side of the road over in Coyote, California. This road takes you along a body of water, and it’s all surrounded by mountains. It was absolutely breathtaking.

Next stop, Boulder Ridge Golf Club! This place was just as stunning as the others. I hitched a ride over to the venue from one of the golf caddies, and took some photos along the way while I explored the place!

On my last day in California, I decided to do a lot of the things that were not yet finished on my list. The first stop was Hakone Estate & Gardens. It’s a beautiful Japanese garden that is also used as a wedding venue! The pictures do not do this place justice at all, it was hands down my favorite venue that I had visited. Bamboo, plenty of flowers, a beautiful pond in the middle; I fell in love with it as soon as I walked inside!

And FIIINALLY, I made it to my last stop, San Francisco. I had been here before, but it had been 4 years since the last time. This city has such a unique charm to it; all of the houses and clumped tightly together, and the buildings are all so colorful! I drove along the Golden Gate bridge, which of course was covered in a heavy fog that day. My last stop was a neighboring town called Sausalito, which if you haven’t been to and live nearby, go visit!! It’s a quaint little town right on the ocean, and it has a magnificent view of the surrounding mountains and the Bay Bridge.

This trip was better than I ever could have dreamt. I was reunited with my best friend, got to explore all over California, and I absolutely fell in love with it. Thank you again for reading today’s blog post! :)