It was early Spring when all of us took a flight to Beijing to take Steven & Avrina’s pre-wedding pictures. I know Beijing or China is not a common spot for spring sessions. While everybody wants to do their engagement pictures in Japan, Korea, or Amsterdam for spring sessions, they decided on Beijing. First, I wondered why they planned to have their session there, and not even considering of other famous destinations. But as I get to know their story deeper, I started to understand what they decided to have it there.

Steven & Avrina met in Beijing a few years ago. They studied in the same campus and their apartments were just side by side. After finding out lots of interesting aspects about each other, they were curious. And then they decided to get to know each other even better.

I remember when we took pictures in the beautiful lakeside pavilion in the garden of Summer Palace, I realized that this palace is not as famous as the Forbidden City. But later they told me this is their favorite place for dating. They could spend hours in this place. Just talking. About anything and never felt the slightest boredom. They even remembered the best time they had when they spent winter in this beautiful palace. At that time there weren't that many visitors. It was only the both of them, and they told us how beautiful this place was when all of the pavilion was covered by snow. Later we took pictures in many places like Qian Men Square, Art District, and many more. Every place contained pieces of their stories and they never felt tired sharing all of them with us. Oh! And including the Bird Nest. That place was not just about the beautiful background for pictures sake, but Steven told us that this is the place that he asked Avrina to marry him.

This is what I wanted to tell you. Some places are beautiful, of course, and some places have magnificent views that we can enjoy. But there are a few places that might not be too special to many of us, just like a small café outside of the city, or an ice cream shop nearby, or even an ordinary park with a bench to sit on. But what differentiate those places is the trail of stories that we left. And from their pre-wedding session, I know that this is what they wanted to remember; the beautiful memories that they have. This made me feel so excited waiting for their wedding day.