A day in their vineyard… Doug and Bobbie’s engagement session.

A wedding in wine country is something that photographers in Arizona can only dream about.  And we were some of those dreamers ourselves until the day we got a call from Doug and Bobbie asking us to shoot their wedding and engagement photos in Paso Robles, CA which is part of the central coast wine phenomenon.  Yay!!!!!

We were SUPER excited and when we took a trip to the area for Doug and Bobbie’s engagement session, our already sky high excitement level shot through the roof as soon as we saw the place!

(See what I mean?  It’s AH-MAZING!!!!).

The first thing Doug and Bobbie wanted us to see, was the winery that they are getting married at. So we headed over to Carmody McKnight Estate Wines to taste a little wine, see the beautiful sights, a take a few photos.

The location was even more incredible than we imagined!  I can’t wait to see what it looks like on the wedding day!!

What we didn’t expect, was the friendly family welcome we received when we arrived!! Carmody, McKnight, and family all came over to meet us and then rushed back to the house to prepare a DELICIOUS gourmet dinner for us to enjoy when we finished taking photos of Doug and Bobbie.

I felt like I was in a dream land as we sat around with this incredibly interesting family and heard about their lives. Gary Carmody was an actor who is well known for his role in “Land of the Giants” and is now an artist and creates the labels for their wines.

Marian McKnight Conway was crowned Miss America in 1957.  Their daughter Kathleen made us the incredible meal and also makes a great popular wine called “Kathleen Cabernet Franc”. Kathleen’s boyfriend Greg, is the very talented vineyard manager who has several viticulture partnerships going with major companies and universities worldwide.

As if that isn’t enough to spark great conversation for an entire meal, Doug and Bobbie are also quite intriguing people themselves with some great stories!

Doug used to be an Indy Race car driver and he once upon a time owned a surf company. Bobbie put herself through college while raising 3 kids and now works as a CFO for a non-profit organization that helps foster children.

They both spend a good amount of time traveling- Doug does a lot of worldwide hunting and fishing and they both love spending downtime in their surf house right on the beach in the British Isles. Oh yeah, and they have a really sweet dog! 🙂

So there we were, hanging out with interesting, talented, and fun people in a stunning environment, while drinking the wine that was actually made by the people around us… it was just an amazing moment that we enjoyed immensely and will remember for a long time to come.

After a lovely dinner with a lovely family, we headed off to Doug and Bobbie’s vineyard (Last Frontier Vineyards), where we relaxed on their porch in the fresh air while looking up at the stars,  had some good laughs together, drank some of their own home grown wine, spent the night, and then got up early to take more photos around their property.

(Scottie took this one at night of the oak tree that stands right smack dab in the middle of their vineyard. Beautiful.).

Their ranch/vineyard sits on 160 acres that is just a site to see.  I couldn’t believe the variety of things they had on their property!

Everything from rolling hills of grass, to lakes, to boulders, to the actual grape vines. So much beauty to take in!

It was so fun to be out so far away from everything else and to know that everything surrounding us was related to their passion of farming.

Doug and Bobbie spend a good portion of their time out there and Doug works his fingers to the bone on the land during their busy seasons.

We hopped in the car and drove around to get a feel for what their lives out there are like and how we could best capture that in photos.

It was a difficult job, trying to contain all that beauty into a few measly photographs, so I hope Doug and Bobbie feel that we did the job! 🙂

(Click here to see the full version of this photo!).

Thanks to everyone at both places who brought us in to your lives and extended so much hospitality to make us feel welcomed in your homes.  Doug and Bobbie, we LOVE your place and we are so happy that the two of you are getting married.  Scottie and I talked on the way home about how fun it is watching you guys interact with one another and how easy it is to tell that you are in love.

We think you guys are great together and we had such a fantastic time getting to know the two of you better.  We feel blessed to have you in our lives and we can’t wait to be a part of such a big day for two such wonderful people! Congratulations on finding each other!

Click to see the rest of Doug and Bobbie’s photos.