Kaitlin & John's Wedding at Victoria Gardens in Visalia

Having Some Fun

So, as I mentioned in my last post, the children at the last wedding were truly adorable. I also loved all of the colorful people and clothing everyone was wearing so I've had some more fun with photo's and thought I would post them. Here's another little peek.

Port Hueneme Beach Wedding

Congratulations Bill & Adriana
May 9, 2009
Port Hueneme, CA

Bill and Adriana live in Michigan far from the waters of the Pacific coast where they exchanged their vows on Saturday, May 9th. Adriana wanted so much to have her California family share this day with her so they chose to be married on the beach at Port Hueneme. Bill's parent's drove from Michigan not only to be at the wedding but Bill's father married them. Adriana's family came with beach blankets and coolers, ready for a day of celebration. I loved the simplicity of this wedding. It was gentle and real. Adriana's mother walked her down the 'sand' and family circled the couple on the beach as their vows were exchanged. The couple did not want any formal wedding session photo's, they wanted me to do what I love doing most....just be an observer and capture it in photographs. As usual, I was drawn to all of the adorable children at this wedding and to the grandmother that was clearly everyone's favorite. One little boy at the wedding said it all....he ran up to the bride after the wedding and said, "this is the best wedding I've ever been to"!

Beautiful Fig Garden Wedding

Ricky & Rachelle - April 25, 2009
Fig Garden Country Club, Fresno, CA

I love Rachelle and Ricky--we had such a great engagement session and I've been looking forward to their wedding for months. So I hopped off a plane from Boston and made it to their wedding with time to spare. Fig Garden is such a warm and inviting place to have a wedding. For some reason it reminds me of my childhood, warm summer evenings of running through sprinklers and eating popsicles. One of the coolest things about getting married at Fig Garden is the big family home that is reserved for the wedding party to get ready...so much fun. Rachelle had her 3 sisters as her bridesmaids and you will see from the pictures that they are all beautiful and all full of personality. I can only imagine what it was like in their home while they were growing up--had to be a blast. Ricky just beams when he looks at Rachelle...they are so adorable. If I had to pick my favorite detail of the wedding it would be the center pieces for the reception tables. Rachelle's grandmother made individual cakes for each table--such a great idea, everyone had their own cake to cut! This couple is honeymooning in San Diego and then will make their home in Clovis. Congratulations on buying your first house and a beautiful marriage.

A Boston Wedding

Me with the Bostonian's
I love them!

April 24, 2009 - Josh and Megan

Congratulations Meg and Josh! What a beautiful April day in Boston! Everything was perfect. Josh and Meg are so adorable and so very much in love. Both of them were just beaming. I love the way Meg says "Joshie" with her Bostonian accent and Josh calls Megan his "princess" (rightfully so). I was able to join this couple for their rehearsal dinner as well and it was a joy to see two families sharing so much love. The venue was in Foxborough and it was stunning. Dinner was great too and I especially loved the little fruit appetizer (you will see a pic below). Josh and Meg will make their home in Weymouth, MA with their minature pincher, Rocco. Josh says that he kisses Meg every morning while she is still asleep...love, sweet love. The couple is honeymooning in Aruba. Thanks for having a California photographer! It was great fun.

Megan & Travis' Wedding

Megan and Travis
April 18, 2009
San Joaquin Country Club
Fresno, CA

Congratulations Megan and Travis! A beautiful spring day in Fresno as Megan and Travis celebrated with family and friends at San Joaquin Country Club. Both bride and groom are full of personality which made taking pics lots of fun. The wedding party also knew how to ham it up for the camera so obviously I took advantage of their posing skills and clicked away. Definite favorite moment of the wedding was the first toast by one of the grooms men--wow, what a great, entertaining speaker! This was my wedding season, kick off wedding and now I'm off to Boston to shoot Meg and Josh's wedding. Keep posted for lots of new work!

2009 Wedding Season has Begun!

This Saturday marks the beginning of what I consider to be the "wedding season". Sure there are weddings here and there during the winter but over the next 5 months, I have the pleasure of photographing over 20 weddings! I have been prepping for this busy time with some new gear (I'm completely in love with prime lens' these days) and software. I've also been bumping up my exercise program because to tell you the truth, shooting a wedding is like running a marathon--it's non-stop all day and I love it. Look for some great destination weddings on my blog as I will be traveling a lot this year...next week I will be shooting a wedding in Boston.

This year I will be offering a new feature to my packages and am so excited about it. Couples will be able to book a Champagne Preview Night in my private studio. So what's this all about? Well, couples will be able to invite up to 4 other people to come and preview their wedding images on a large screen in DVD format. It's a great time for couples to re-live the day with friends and family while sipping champagne. Of course this gives me a great excuse to redecorate my studio...I've had this in mind for quite some time....it's going to be super duper cool. There will be more info on this in the months to come so stay tuned.

I'm so thankful. I'm so blessed. God is good.

Erika & Jason on Ocean Beach in San Francisco

What a beautiful day in San Francisco! When I schedule a session in SF I'm never sure if the weather will cooperate but this past Saturday there were no worries. Erica and Jason met me at the Cliff House and we started the session on the beach. I love that Erica wanted to wear a flowing, formal dress...it really made the photo's feel eventful. I even convinced her to get in the water with that dress on! Erica has had an obsession with mermaids since she was a little girl--seriously, in some of the pics she looked just like a mermaid to me! About 3/4 of the way into the session I saw a wave of people coming towards us.... about 200 people. Low and behold it was not only people but their little dogs too. Apparently every Saturday morning there is a dog walk on Ocean Beach...it was really quite a site to see. So, since we were almost finished on the beach anyway, we headed up to the Cliff House for some fun. It was a great session and I am really looking forward to Erica and Jason's wedding in September.

Time for Senior Pictures...Brittney

It's that time of year for Senior Pictures!  I love working with teens...must come from my many years of being a high school art teacher.  They are so full of life and usually very shy in front of the camera.  So I love the challenge of getting them to warm up and have fun during the shoot.  Brittney did a great job of letting her personality show through in her photo's....she has so many different looks and of course I had a lot of fun with that.  Beautiful Brittney!

Lee & Ashley's Engagement Shoot at Quail Lake