Biarritz Engagement Shoot

Jocelyn and Walton’s engagement shoot in Biarritz, France and San Sebastian, Spain

Jocelyn and Walton are an international love story at its best. She’s from Malaysia, he’s from America, they met and fell in love in London and are now doing the long distance thing before coming back together in London for their wedding this summer. So of course we threw two more countries into the mix for their pre-wedding engagement shoot in Biarritz, France and San Sebastian, Spain. They were already engaged before this trip, but Walton hadn’t been able to give Jocelyn a ring yet for geographical reasons so he and I had planned secretly to give each other the nod when it was a good time for him to re-propose. It was a pretty special moment!!

I was over the moon when they suggested Biarritz and San Sebastian for their sunrise to sunset pre-wedding shoot location. Travel is like a drug to me and I had never been to Biarritz or San Sebastian before so I was ultra excited to visit two new places with Jocelyn and Walton.

Checking the weather in the build up it wasn’t looking so good! Chilly and cloudy and a high risk of rain. When I arrived in Biarritz (via Bilbao) the day before their shoot the weather for the next day looked pretty awful starting the day with a forecast of fog and low visibility! So I told them there wasn’t much chance of sunny sunrise photos but we should meet early for breakfast anyway and see what the weather decides to do, because everyone tells you that Atlantic coastline has a mind of its own. And sure enough, when I threw open the curtains that morning there was hardly a cloud in the sky and certainly no fog. So after a quick breakfast we set about exploring the almost deserted off-season streets of Biarritz and it was flippin’ wonderful! We had such an amazing time and the weather held for the first couple of hours before it did get bitterly cold and rained for a while so we headed off in search of coffee and croissants…

After some really good seafood tapas we headed off to our second shoot location and found the most amazing bamboo copse! By now the sun was back out (totally at odds with the forecast again) and just as we finished shooting in this location it started to rain again so we jumped back in the car and crossed the border back into Spain heading for San Sebastian… we drove through the rain and then guess what? Yep! By the time we arrived in San Sebastian 40 mins later the sun was back out and we were able to explore the town and sit for some drinks in the town square before heading back to our final shoot location of Guéthary for some beach shots – Jocelyn LOVES the sea!

I delivered them back to Biarritz to have dinner with Walton’s family who had joined him on this trip, and headed back to my hotel worn out but invigorated by a day of sea air and great company doing what I love to do. Does it get any better than that?