Junior Prom!

It’s so hard to believe that yet another school year has so rapidly come to a close. (Though I admit, this was definitely one of those years where the year went fast but the days went slow: With three honors classes and three APs in a tough school district, Emily’s workload was absolutely brutal, and despite my general wish for time to go a whole lot more slowly than it is, there were definitely more days this year than not when I wished the year would just be over already!)

At any rate, the girls absolutely deserved a fantastic night of celebrating together, and I am so, so grateful that they had such a wonderful time!

They gathered first at our house to have a quick dinner before heading out for photos before the big event, and one mom brought them a cake to have afterwards; it was so sweet and thoughtful of her (and was dutifully and joyfully devoured sometime between 11:45 and 1 am—LOL!). Some of them dressed here; a huge thank you to Emily’s senior friend, too, for helping some with hair and make-up!

As the girls arrived, we took a few photos in the back yard.

I am grateful that that same mom thought to have us take photos of the backs of their dresses, too—they were so pretty!

We got a little later start than I was hoping for because this light is what I drool over as a photographer, and I wanted to shoot their whole session in it, so I couldn’t help but make them stop for a few photos just in our driveway before we got going even though one of them hadn’t quite arrived yet. The golden hour that evening was simply gorgeous!

And of course we needed some silly ones, and multiple selfies were taken! The girls were truly such fun to hang out with!

And even though they are terrible photos, I just had to document the sketchy van we rented. We’d planned to get a limo to surprise them for Emily’s birthday, but I thought of it too late and by then we couldn’t get good reservations, so we went the van route instead so that at least they could all go in one car to and from. Not the classiest of rides, but they didn’t seem to mind!

We went to Santa Clara University for photos on our way to prom. And the girls all looked absolutely stunning! I loved their dresses…

And then more silliness! I just love how much fun they were having…

We forgot to take any of Tom and I with her, so at the last minute we grabbed our own selfie…

And then we dropped them off! The prom was held at the Rotunda in San Jose, and it looked amazing! There are floors around the outer circle of it, but the whole thing is open up the middle so you can see the sky and stars. So beautiful!

While they were dancing and having the time of their lives, Tom and I went out to dinner and the restaurant, Vin Santo in Willow Glen, gave us champagne when they saw that I was giving Tom his anniversary gift since it had finally arrived! (I had made him a Moleskine book of all of my favorite images of our 20 years together; I am absolutely thrilled with how it came out; you can see it here if you like!)

After prom we picked them up and brought them back to our place where they talked and laughed until the wee hours of the morning. It was absolutely a magical evening and I am so happy for them!