The Colors of Love

There is a poem about the colors of love and it goes like this: “For some folks, the color of love is red – fiery and hot. For others, it is orange – rich and fruitful.  For some, the color is yellow – caring and cautious. For others, it’s blue – placid and calm..”  Yet, for Anais and Derek, the color of love is rainbow. As long as it shines and rains, like rainbow, love is there between the two of them.

How It All Started

As the couple shares,

I met Derek at the Apple store where he works. I was about 10 minutes late to my appointment, so they had to reschedule me. I remember standing there with my arms crossed because I was so mad! Finally, after about 30 minutes, this guy comes up to me and asks how my day is going. In my head I was like, ‘Oh my gosh, what do you think? I literally waited for 30 minutes.’ Honestly, at the moment I wanted to be rude because I was so upset; I hate waiting. But he was so nice and calm that I got over it quickly. He asked me about my phone and I told him my speaker wasn’t working. As he was looking at the phone, I began “the conversation.” I think this was like the ‘make it or break it’ moment. I started off with what my favorite thing to talk about, the Lakers! I said, ‘So what do you think about Kobe this year?’ I knew immediately that I picked the right topic because his face lit up. Then I brought up some new Jordan’s that were coming out in a few weeks. Again, his face lit up. We found so many things in common in the 15 minutes we were standing there. Personally, I think he was taking extra long on purpose. When I walked out of there, I remember thinking ‘wow, he was pretty cool.’ He was so easy to talk to and so down to earth, but in reality I never thought I would talk to him again. A couple of days later, I was on Instagram and I saw that I had a request. I opened it up and it was this little Asian guy, with an Apple in his Bio. I was like ooohh my gosh, how cute…. he found me. So I added him. About a week later the craziest thing happened. I dropped my phone face down after I had just had it replaced. Now it was completely cracked, so of course I had to post a picture on social media. Derek wrote a comment that said ‘I know someone who can fix that.’ I gave him my phone number and I went back to the store to have it replaced. The rest is history!
— Anais

Before I hit the follow button I was nervous that she would think I’m weird for following her first, but in my mind I was thinking that this girl is something special and I didn’t want to miss out and then regret not doing it. After following her I literally threw my phone onto my bed and went for a walk outside. I felt like I was in high school because of the way I was acting. Once Anais followed me back I felt relieved and excited. First thing I did was scroll through her photos knowing that she’s probably doing the same thing.
— Derek

The Proposal

It was March 21, 2015, a few days before my birthday. Derek had told me that he wanted to take me to dinner on that Saturday since my birthday was on a Tuesday this year. He didn’t want to tell me where dinner was going to be, so I was excited to see where we’d be going. Derek and I are foodies, and we love fine dining, so I knew that wherever it would be that it would be amazing. We got to a restaurant in Los Angeles called La Boheme. It has beautiful decor, hanging chandeliers, along with red and black walls. However, the experience in the restaurant was not so amazing. Our waiter was totally distracted and not attentive at all. He even forgot to put our food orders in, so we didn’t eat for an hour and a half after ordering. It was honestly a nightmare…. and I was starving!But during those two hours, Derek and I were laughing, making jokes and making the best out of the situation. It was a reminder to me about how everything could be going crazy around us, and yet we could still make the best of all situations because we were together; as corny as that sounds. After leaving the restaurant we began heading home. I was a little tired and ready to lie down quite honestly. But then we made a slight detour and arrived at the Urban Lights at the LACMA. I had always told Derek that I wanted to go there and walk in between the lights. We walked toward the lights. He was acting suspicious, so I could tell something was up. When we got there, Derek got down on a knee. He told me how much he loved me and how he wanted to spend the rest of his life with me. I did the typical girl thing and covered my face haha, but I really was so excited and happy, and overall I felt lucky to have found such an amazing person to spend the rest of my life with.
— Anais

She was surprised when it happened, but I had a feeling she knew what was going on because I’m not great at keeping secrets. She probably read the signs that I may have been showing. When I brought her to the Urban Lights at LACMA I was looking for the most romantic place that would be unforgettable. I chose that spot because of the times we have driven past the lights she would look over and say how pretty it is.
— Derek

Engagement Shoot Details

Anais and Derek’s engagement session was taken at the San Juan Mission in San Juan Capistrano located in South Orange County. Both of them are very playful, gentle and affectionate towards each other. While at the beach, they brought out powdered paint and doused each other with it, giving us some very colorful and outrageous photos. As for their wedding, it will be take place at the Ponte Winery in Temecula next year.

VENDORS

Photographer:  Three16 Photography
Museum: San Juan Capistrano Mission