Today, we have Alexia and Will’s Inn Marin wedding, and buckle in, this is a fantastic wedding! I loved Alexia and Will from the moment they met me at a cafe north of San Francisco and explained their story, which just reflects so many stories of my own. Their wedding would consist of their loving close family and, well, their high school friends! It’s rare that a group of friends holds together after high school, so when I meet a group like my own friends, I really sit up and take notice! I wasn’t wrong, either, Alexia and Will’s whole wedding day was like a trip down nostalgia lane for me.
I also want to take a moment and talk about how sweet their ceremony was – officiated by Will’s sister, it hit just about every geeky classic love story, except, maybe, Arcadia by Tom Stoppard (my personal favorite). When she said, “Love keeps her in the air when she oughta fall down,” I could feel my eyes well up, and, “I will love you forever; whatever happens. Till I die and after I die, and when I find my way out of the land of the dead, I’ll drift about forever, all my atoms, till I find you again…” I really just about lost it! I read the Golden Compass repeatedly, until my hardcover broke in half, and I can still remember the first time I read the Amber Spyglass’ terrible ending. I’m 90% sure my obsession with the unrequited, all-consuming nature of love came from that series! Anyway, all I’m saying is that this ceremony was spectacular and I wish I could read it out to all of you!
Lastly, shout outs to Tricia Harris, the catering manager at Inn Marin, for coordinating the whole day, and her tireless waiters and waitresses who would stop and converse with me during the lulls. 🙂 You’re awesome!
Well, first we have my ever present obsession with Blackjack. He’ll be going in for his neuter sometime in the next month or two, and rabbits are prone to sudden death in surgery (like everything else in rabbit life), so wish him luck! We’re neutering him, at last, because this past spring season has been pretty much a non-stop unspeakable bunny acts-fest, and we also want to get him a girlfriend without the reproduction of a lot of bunnies. Or just a poor spayed female having to put up with Blackjack’s insatiable bunny lust. haha, still he looks cute!
I captured some shots of him grooming, which are rare, and I kind of love the look of “wtf are you looking at, I’m eating here.”
And of course, the selfie-parade. With the green hat, I was taking a photo to complement a Time Hop post – my friend Gloria took a photo of me wearing that hat almost 8 years ago. On the west coast, I really have no reason to wear the hat, so it sits in the “winter” portion of the closet with all my other unused knit stuff. Sigh! And then, a couple other selfies, one catching a sunflare I saw riding caltrain one day, and the other showing off the perfect light my bathroom gets at about 6 pm to 6:15 pm. I also plucked that lovely ombre hair off my head this month. I don’t know what to say about that, except that the brown portion was attached to my head. James says it’s like a flickering light bulb. The hair color is shutting on and off and will give out soon. 😛
I have to admit, Gina and Tom’s Cypress Hotel wedding surprised me, and after a season of offbeat brides (who I adore!), it was a good break to return to a more classic white wedding. They approached me later in the season than I might expect a client to book me (most clients book about 6 months out, though a lot of people also seem to opt for the year and a half in advance option!), but because they were getting married on a Monday, I had the date still open. I’m never sure what to expect from weekday weddings! We also had less interaction than I normally do with my clients before weddings, and while they seemed pretty laid back, I had no idea how much fun they were! Their dog, Fuji, was the ring bearer – awesome! Bubbles during the first dance was especially epic – they looked amazing and romantic! I was surprised all day long and loving every moment!
Shoutouts to Flutterby Events for stepping in and doing a meticulous job for day of coordination! 🙂
This view of the Cypress Hotel is pretty iconic – I’m glad I got a sunny day! (more…)
Despite the date, this post is no joke! As part of my boyfriend’s week to week activities, he spends some time running my google analytics and seeing how people interact with my site, and, boy howdy, do some people have trouble finding the Contact Me page! People spend hours drilling through the photos I’ve posted, and even going back and forth between my about me, my pricing, and my contact page, but never ever actually clicking to send me an e-mail. So, today’s little tongue-in-cheek post is to tell you about my booking process so that you know what to expect! There’s no need to be afraid about contacting me, I swear!
First of all, finding the contact page is pretty easy – at the top of every page on my website is a heading. All you have to do is click “Contact Me” (the one I’ve circled in obnoxious green), and you’re on your way. Now, you might ask me why I don’t just leave my e-mail address out in the open so that you can just e-mail me directly instead of using a contact form. You can do that, for sure! My e-mail is natalie@funnybunnyphoto.com and I’m happy to talk to you! However, I do receive approximately 500-600 spam e-mails a day, and, despite months of training, my spam filter is not as accurate as I’d like it to be. I recommend using the contact form to make sure that I receive your inquiry no matter what!
To say that this is a Doctor Who wedding is just too simple – it’s actually a Doctor Who/Steampunk/Victorian wedding at the Windsor Grange Hall, with, you know, all of Lori and Will’s personalities thrown in there! You may remember Lori and Will from a couple posts ago, with their engagement session. Lori and Will are definitely an offbeat couple! 🙂 One of the best things about Lori, though, is just how open and loving she is – she kept her smile on all day, and even found the time for an extended chat with me as the reception was winding up! I’m facebook friends with VERY few of my clients these days and I’m always happy to see her in my newsfeed.
By far, the highlight of this wedding (other than the deep, wonderful love between Lori and Will) is the DIY aspect of it. They are both DIY fiends. Lori, in particular, was already obsessed with crafts, so the DIY wedding was a natural extension. Handmade flowers, handmade signs, handmade favors… it goes on forever! And let’s not overlook Will’s badass handmade TARDIS! The drama tech carpenter in me was pretty giddy to see that piece of construction!
So, let’s start this beautiful wedding with one of my favorite panoramas to date (that light!!!):
We started by getting ready at Lori’s parents’ farm…! (more…)
Or really, the last month! At the end of January, I read a self-help book called the Artist’s Way and I’ve been working my way through Julie Cameron’s 12 week course. While I have misgivings about a lot of the way she presents the material, I really wanted to give it a shot! All this is to say that because of that book, I find that I’m reaching for my camera more for the day-to-day shots. There will always be iPhone, though. It’s just so easy! Though I have to say, after a month of forcing myself to reach for my camera instead of the iPhone, it’s actually not all that much easier to just whip out my phone. I often don’t know where my phone is, and, even though it’s the 6+, it has immense trouble finding focus. By the time I take the shot, I really might as well have just gotten out my proper cameras. Sigh!
Whelp! Let’s do this! First, we have to get the pet photos out of the way. Here’s your monthly dose of Blackjack! Even if my little boy is a BED POOPER, I do love him…
We also have a guest appearance from King Ramses, the cat of two of my friends. He has previously appeared posing with a box of Munchkin, which we may or may not have been playing again…
And then there’s the nature photos. One of those is definitely an iPhone photo (hint, it’s the tiny one). I just love the green hills that California gets in the winter, but I can see they’re already dying and making way for that continuous dry California summer you hear about. 🙁 I’ve got nothing against the yellow hills, but honestly, I was hoping for at least one more storm.
I think I may have mentioned this before, but one of my crafts is that I make some simple notebooks. Because…why not? I have a stack of cardstock that I keep around for covers, and every once in awhile, I’ll print off 50 sheets and sew them together into a 200 page notebook. Here’s my latest stack – we’re going with dot grids this time. Something about graph paper and lined paper just feels inherently restrictive. I will be free this time! FREEDOM!
We also quickly see the beginnings of my wedding season, including a shot of my computer screen of an engagement session, and a quick shot from yesterday at City Hall on my phone. Going back to City Hall always feels good. The procedure is pretty set, it’s a really well known quantity, and the place is gorgeous. Hard to go wrong!
The official start of my wedding season, though, was Megan and Devin’s wedding on Pi Day, and while I’m ages away from done with editing, I did take this snapshot with my phone towards the end of the reception. You’ll just have to wait for their wedding blog post to find out what the dice (die…. for all you grammar people!) is for! As well, we have a parade of selfies from their wedding day. The first is my face upon waking up to get ready to go to Megan’s getting ready (…the first time! There were two!). The 2nd is infinitely more embarrassing – what looks like possibly a hangover or something involving me on drugs, and then my gradual rehabilitation towards humanity. Basically, I was in my hotel room after my day with Megan and Devin, and I was like, “I know I just got up, but how bad could I really look?” And then I was so horrified, I put on a ton of makeup (for me) to hide my shame!
Nah, it was all in good fun. I just knew I was going out to dinner that evening and didn’t want to look like I’d been through an 18 hour wedding day.
In short: rabbits, cats, nature, crafts, and photos. Yeah. That pretty much sums up my entire life, honestly. Stay tuned for more in Volume 5! 😛
Today, we zoom ahead temporarily to Devin and Megan’s Paradise Ridge Winery engagement session! They’re getting married this Saturday, Pi Day, and I thought, “What better time to post these?” I’m sure I’ll harp on about how awesome Pi Day is when I blog their wedding, so, instead, let me tell you about how miserable the traffic was driving up there. I live in Mountain View and I knew that Santa Rosa wasn’t going to be an easy drive. Still, I left early for our date at the Paradise Ridge Winery, and still arrived over 30 minutes late. I have fevered memories of sitting on the freeway trying to get Siri to text Megan updates every 10 minutes. I felt so awful and I can only hope my copious apologies were accepted – they seem to have been anyway! At any rate, the more I hang out with these two, the more I like them, which is honestly something I hope to say of all my clients. Still, it’s not often that you walk into someone’s apartment and find that you share a lot of the same cookbooks! I’m super excited to shoot their wedding this weekend up in Sacramento! Eeeeee!
Today, we start with one of those magical moments when California grass and trees combine to create an absolutely dreamy image:
The view from up top is amazing! They’d just started a wine tasting when I finally broke free from the traffic. Yum! (more…)
Erika and Jason’s Hornblower Cruises wedding, taking off out of Berkeley’s Doubletree Marina, was truly a supervillian wedding to remember. When Erika and Jason first met with me to describe their wedding, I have to admit, I was really excited. What’s not to love when your couple is going to dress up as the Joker and Harley (minus white makeup), and their guests are going as people out of the DC Universe? Okay, maybe this only appeals to me, but hopefully if you’re reading my blog, it appeals to you as well! I was a little giggly over how many superheroes showed up to the wedding, but I guess even archnemeses (archnemisises? … my autocorrect doesn’t like either of those…) set aside their differences for love! They also announced some joyous family news at this event, and it’s pretty clear to me that Erika and Jason’s child is going to be raised by incredible parents and friends!
I have a terrible secret about this whole wedding, though – as awesome as every super-detail was, I…actually get really motion sick at everything. Cars, airplanes…and well, you can just imagine the boat, and the water was really choppy! I’m so proud that I really managed to capture the spirit of Erika and Jason’s day while not puking over the side of the ship! And I’m really proud of Erika for managing that too. 🙂 Seriously, this was a really fun wedding!
So, let’s start with the plethora of Joker/Harley details (did I mention almost entirely handmade as well?)…
Lovesick Expo 2015! Woohoo! First, please excuse this whole blog, my brain is still not thinking straight after chatting to all you lovely people yesterday and I’m still trying to squeeze out thoughts here for this post! I’m not sure I’m going to sound very sensible.
Anyway, and hopefully a familiar sight to those of you that came, here I am, Zojirushi coffee mug in hand and in my favorite rabbit t-shirt that my friend Gloria gifted me just because a couple years ago. This is my “I woke up at 6 am to get all my shit done (daily journaling, meditation, baking a lot of bacon, making 3 cups of coffee in my involved coffee making process) before this show” face. Even if you don’t see yourselves here, I also had 6 albums out, PLUS 15 extra photos taped to my table, so please know that I love allllll of you. 🙂
Location for Lovesick Expo 2015: Rock Wall Wine Company in Alameda, and much like any venue on the water, the views might be abandoned concrete, but the city skyline in the distance is to die for. I did, however, witness a literal tumbleweed blowing across the parking lot. California drought, please!
Also, I casually polled the couples that came up to my booth with wine in hand and the verdict is that it was delicious! In case you needed a recommendation.
Now, because I’m a major introvert, and I was already trying to chat up every person that came my way, I didn’t do a lot of socializing, but I did manage to get these photos. First up, Circus of Smiles who were at Lovesick Expo to advertise their child care services. Need entertainment for guests and kiddies, they want to be your friends! I can definitely say they were natural entertainers, and I do want to note that the guy in the clown nose here is not one of them, but my boyfriend James. 🙂 Hi honey! He spent a good chunk of time over at their booth trying to learn some plate balancing and juggling tricks, so I’m really grateful to them for entertaining him! They were also really good sports, whenever I pointed my camera in their direction, they immediately noticed and hammed it up. I can’t really ask for much more.
The other unique vendor near me was this (pictured: James…again…) Billion Jelly Bloom. All you really have to do is look at these photos, visit their website and read the words, “THE ORIGINAL CROWD-SURFING, DANCE PARTNER-SIZED, BURNING MAN-IFESTED, LUMINOUS JELLYFISH BLOOM” and I feel like you’ve got the awesome picture. If you’re worried your friends aren’t going to dance, this could be your ticket to a busy dance floor. Or, even, maybe you’ve got an underwater/ocean wedding. Plus, as you can see from James’ expression, these things are pretty fun to jiggle, too. Although they have blooms all over the US, they are local to the Bay Area and do flash mob-esque jelly blooms in the area and are always looking for participants!
Not pictured here are my photography compatriots, Liza Head at Juniper Spring Photography, Jenny and Geo at Jenny Dee Photography, and, close to photography but not quite, videographers Denise and Enrico at Stand Up Films. They were totally awesome because they spent part of their set up time hanging a cloth over the back of my wall! I had planned ahead and knew I would have to put a cloth over the back (or screw over their display, which I would never do!), but they got finished setting up first and did my work for me! Thanks guys! You rock! Sorry the back of my photo wall is so hideous! I can’t help but mention All Ears DJ as well, who I’ve been next to twice now for all your DJ-ing needs.
I also wanted to give a shout out to Saint Harridan, Masculine Clothing and Accessories for Women and Transmen. I know a lot of masculine/male-identifying/trans people struggle to find wedding appropriate apparel. I’ve even heard at least one upsetting story about a woman being literally unable to find a suit that was cut right, which is absolutely ridiculous in this day and age in the Bay Area. I didn’t know about Saint Harridan then, but I know I’ll be totally making that recommendation in the future!
By far the best part of the day was getting out on the dance floor and working off all that talking adrenaline! Thanks to everyone who stopped by, I’m pulling all those entries out of the birdcage today, and I’ll be sending everyone I can read e-mails or texts! I really loved meeting every single one of you, and that’s the best thing about Lovesick. I wasn’t sure what to expect, it’s my first year making the bridal show circuit, but Lovesick’s crowd was just amazing. I felt like we all had a lot of common topics we could talk about (ADVENTURE TIME! Self-driving cars! Knitting! and of course, most importantly, bunny rabbits), and that’s honestly what I’m always hoping for in my couples. Anyway, nerd/geek/dork/otaku love foreveeeer <3 'til next year!
Occasionally, I take on smaller weddings, like Amie and Yucel’s San Francisco City Hall wedding. I’d been here a few times for portraits, but was looking to return, because I love the gorgeous location and, well, let’s face it, small elopements are fun! I was really happy to be back at City Hall with them, and now I just have to cross the goal of “real” wedding at City Hall – you know, where they actually put out chairs for you on the third level.
What I remember most about this day was the laughter. The arriving too early, getting lost in the building, and the endless smiling. It was a small gathering – Yucel didn’t have a lot of family in the area, and Amie as well only invited a couple friends. They patiently waited while we did a quick photo session, and then, once we got the marriage license signed, we all made our way up the main stairs to wait. They used two phones to Skype home for Yucel, and they watched the ceremony from the phones. Talk about modern! 🙂 It was a fun, lighthearted day, and I’m so happy to have been there!
First, we start out with one of my better panoramas – I spent a good long time stitching this one together!
