Storytime: It was a Thursday during the first week of college. The musical theatre program I was in required me to go through a week of various auditions. And then, the powers that be would announce who made the group the following day. On this very special Thursday, I showed up to school early bright eyed and bushy tailed. [Now, please don’t get the idea that I was a good student…haha. Tardy was my specialty]. Moving on…so, I looked for a place to sit, I found an empty chair next to this girl that I swear looked fifteen years-old. Shea Mitchell. We got to talking about our mutual love for theatre and music, and blah, blah, blah. And suddenly, with the excitement of a child going to Disneyland, Shea blurts out, “I am auditioning for this musical theatre program! You should too!!!!” With the look of shock, I replied, “I’ve been in that audition room all week…!” To this day, it’s our favorite story to tell. Needless to say, we both made the program and became fast friends and quite inseparable. That is us. Now onto the juicy part of the story.

Shea practically grew up at the races and horse racing is something that is in Shea’s blood as she is the daughter of West Coast horse trainer Mike Mitchell. She spent countless days at the races with her family cheering along her dad’s horses. Enter Julien. He’s is an East Coast jockey and is originally from France. Being that they ran in the same circles, they knew of each other for years, but hadn’t really connected until Shea attended the races at the Keeneland. And in a dramatic turn of events, Julien flew over the rail during a race and broke his hand. But like the seasoned pro he is, he continued to ride in the remaining races. Via Twitter Shea wrote, “I hope you’re ok.” And thus, their love story began…Julien says, “it was the best fall of my life because it brought us together.” Cute right? These two are perfect together. I just love it.

Isaac and I will be shooting their wedding here in California in December, but they flew him out to Lexington, Kentucky to do their engagement session at Keeneland. Fitting, eh? Here’s our favorites from their shoot…