When Margot originally contacted me, she was looking way far out – I was expecting her to get married in the middle of 2013. But, as is the way with so many military weddings, it turned out that a last minute mid-September was actually in the cards. Luckily, I was still free, and I was positively amazed at what this couple put together in one month! Their cake vendor, Shelton’s Wedding Cake Designs, was also super understanding about the circumstances and put together the lovely cake you see below as well (military families take note!).
Almost every detail that isn’t food here is handmade from the self-described working bride – the heart decorations are pages cut out of Pride and Prejudice, and the bouquets were all an amazing mixture of locally sourced flowers and handmade paper flowers. As a fellow lover of the paper arts, I was pretty much over the moon. Congrats, Derek and Margot! I really wish you both all the best.
You know how on some days, you roll out of bed and you think to yourself, “I just… I can’t make that hour long commute today. It’s too far.” Well! For once, I got up and I didn’t have to drive one or two hours to get to that day’s wedding, and it felt fantastic! From the get go, Cathy and Juan were down to earth, and loved that I lived within walking distance of their ceremony site, St. Thomas Aquinas Church, and their reception hotel, the gorgeous Garden Court Hotel. It was clear that Cathy had a strong direction she wanted to take her wedding in and every little detail on their day pointed toward her precision in planning. Seriously, take a close look at how awesome their shoes are (I know, I’m obsessed)!
Congratulations, Cathy and Juan! Your wedding was a blast were great fun!
Keep an eye out for occasional photo credits to Ellie Van Houtte as well!
August was a truly difficult month for me, but through it all, I had the fact that one of my close friends from high school, Elizabeth, was getting married in Texas, and I was going to be her photographer! Her and Turner met on the first day of their graduate school orientation, and in their own words, “We were both skipping orientation to visit the bookstore, and as Elizabeth stood in the Classics section, minding her own business, someone suddenly came up and demanded to know, ‘Do you read Latin?!?'”
They were married in the architecturally unique Chapel of St. Basil at the University of St. Thomas, officiated by a close friend of Turner’s. They followed this up with a lunch reception at the Colombe D’or with all of us family and friends. It was a real treat to be able to participate in their wedding day, knowing them both as I do, and I’m so happy to share these images today!
Ann and Paul found me by a stroke of luck after their prior photographer had fallen ill. The poor couple also lost their officiant just a couple weeks before the ceremony as well, but as you can see, it all managed to work out. Their ability to roll with the tide and just make the best of everything was pretty amazing! The ceremony was simple and sweet – Paul leaned over more than once to kiss his lovely bride on the cheek, and the reception rocked from start to finish. The wedding party entered, and everyone descended onto the dance floor and it was hard to draw everyone away again to eat their dinners! There was even some surprise cake smashing when Paul kind of missed Ann’s mouth during the cake cutting and, as such, hilarity ensued. I wish them both the best of luck and hope they had the best time ever on their European honeymoon!
I’m so excited to present Colleen and Edward’s engagement session – I get along with most of my clients pretty well, but I had an instant connection with Colleen. And, let’s be honest, how in the world can you not be best friends with a man (such as Edward) who has a red suit? Best, or BEST?
Colleen had her heart set on some sunset photos, so we moseyed our way from Judah street down to the beach, and then back again, with some fantastic results. You might not think it, but roads with lots of passing traffic are totally your best lighting friend. 🙂 I’ll have their wedding along in a few weeks as well – Colleen’s reception dress is pretty much my dream dress as well, so I can’t wait to start editing!
You may remember Angie and Marlon from my engagement session with them earlier in the summer. They are really one of the most photogenic couples ever, and while I was only hired for the ceremony, not the reception, I still had a blast. They are both so in love, and surrounded by so much love, it was truly moving to see them overwhelmed by their emotions just after the ceremony. People cry at weddings, but it’s really kind of rare to see both the bride and groom crying their eyes out (and looking pretty doing it!). Congratulations, Angie and Marlon – I have no doubt you’re going to have the best life together.
Hello all! Long time no blog! I apologize for my long absence – those “in the know” realize I’ve been having some health problems lately, and actually even had a minor visit for surgery this past weekend! Freaking out about that has led to a massive back up in blog posts, to say the least, but I’ve checked out as 100% healthy now and it should be busy busy from here through the beginning of November! Chris and Jessika are the last of my engagement shoots from last May. They decided to get their engagement photography done at many places, including the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art! Jessika saw photos on google and just knew she had to go there!
Even though I delivered their photos ages ago, I just didn’t have the chance to put together the blog post until now. They are such a sweet couple – and you’ll see just how adorable in these photos. From the start, they were making faces at each other and cracking up, and just so easy to capture photos of. Jessika also reminded me a fair bit of one of my friends, Taylor, who I miss dearly, so it was lovely to work with people who already felt like home to me. They had only just got engaged and were happily ignoring all the responsibilities of planning their wedding, so I really wish them both all the best with that craziness! Don’t get too stressed, you guys! Just let your love keep shining through and everything else will fit right into place!
Candace and Tony, my first experience in shooting a pseudo-maternity shoot, are adorable! We really lucked out – first, they both wanted to meet late in the day, ideal for photos if you think it’s going to be sunny, and then second, amid a city covered in fog, just around the Conservatory of Flowers, the sun was shining and flowers were blossoming and everything was wonderful! It helps that both Candace and Tony are fun to laugh with and easy to work with, but especially toward the end, when the sun was really starting in on golden hour, I just felt like leaping around shouting sunlight! Sunlight! Sunlight!
Best of luck to you both, and of course, to your (born? soon to be born??? VERY SOON?) daughter! If her parents are any indication, her life is going to be full of love.
My logo and website are both designed by the very talented Kim Nguyen – kudos to her for getting it done! 😀
The reason I’m updating sans photo is to say that IF YOU HAVE PREVIOUSLY VISITED THIS WEBSITE, you may have some trouble navigating – due to some technical errors in the early stages of my website design (all my fault, so sorry, Kim and everyone else!), you may find yourself getting errors or just clicking around in circles you can’t seem to escape.
To fix this (or rather, what worked for me!), you have to clear your web browser’s cache. Instructions to do this in a variety of browsers are at the following link:
In my case, it took about 10-15 minutes and a computer restart after I cleared my cache for the changes to take and the website to start working properly. If that doesn’t work, the site is still functional and you should be getting about a 97% experience instead of a 100%. 🙂
I’ll be posting a blog post before the end of tonight to make up!
Phew, talk about a mouthful of a title up there! Second up in the couples that participated in my engagement photo special were Angie and Marlon, an adorable couple from Antioch. We met up at the Japanese Tea Garden – people that know me know that even though I am Korean by heritage, I actually only know how to speak Japanese – on a cloudy day. Luckily, you don’t need sun to make gorgeous photos if you have gorgeous people! The tourists in the area kindly tried to stay out of our way while we weaved around another photographer doing a young woman’s sweet sixteen photos. We must have circled the garden 10 times to try and get all the photos we wanted in while avoiding the other people there. I think we had a particular amount of fun in front of the Moon Bridge, which was unfortunately traffic coned off to keep us plebes from climbing all over it. Below is just a small selection, but I tried to include as many as possible at Angie and Marlon’s request. 🙂 You know you guys can share your private gallery with your friends, right??? Just give them the password!
I won’t get the chance to photograph their wedding in July, but of course, I wish them all the best!
