When I first met with Veronica and Noe to talk about wedding photography, I asked Noe how he proposed. He said he asked Veronica to marry him on a mountaintop in Big Sur — which is the exact thing I did when I asked Amber to marry me. I knew we were going to get along great.
I also knew exactly where the engagement session had to be.
At the end of every wedding I shoot, I always get a photo of myself with the couple who brought me along to document their day. It’s one of my favorite moments of every wedding, and I love that I have an ever-growing archive of these fun pictures.
The wonderful couples who brought me into their weddings in 2011 helped make this an amazing year for me. Because of them, I was able to leave my job at the newspaper where I worked since 2002 and fulfill my dream of being my own boss, working on my own as a full-time freelance photographer. It has been and continues to be the hardest work I’ve ever done, and I wouldn’t trade it for anything.
So I’d like to extend a huge thank you to Camille and Doug and Christine and Chris and Leslie and Ryan and Ashley and Joseph and Steph and John and Athena and Anthony and Sunita and Brian and Lindsay and Rob and Bridget and Amadeo. You guys are the best.
On this last day of the year, I’m looking forward to all the wonderful couples I’ll meet in 2012. I can’t wait to see what your wedding is like, and I can’t wait to show you my photos of your day.
When Bridget and Amadeo told me they were having a rock-and-roll themed wedding, I pictured a few decorations that made reference to rock music, maybe something with guitars or drums, that sort of thing.
I underestimated them.
They had custom-made guitar picks. Centerpieces made out of vinyl records. Each table named for a famous rock venue. The seating guide was individually-printed tickets. They offered chocolates shaped like guitars and records. Greeting cards were collected in a snare drum. The ceremony was lit with red lights to resemble a stage. And their officiant addressed the people assembled to witness wedding vows as “those about to rock.”
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The day before Lindsay and Rob’s Folsom wedding, I scoped out some locations for wedding photos at Lake Natoma Inn, the site of their ceremony and reception. There were lots of good locations, but some of them required walking on dirt paths or down rough wooden stairways. I needed to ask the couple what they were willing to do.
So my question was, on a scale of 1 to 10, how adventurous would they want to be to get photos after the ceremony, if 1 is not wanting to leave the reception and 10 is willing to climb a mountain?
“Ten!” Lindsay said immediately.
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How awesome was Sunita & Brian’s Monterey wedding? Let me count the ways.
The weather was perfect. The venue, The Perry House, was beautiful. The ceremony elicited both tears and laughter. There was custom-made home-brewed beer. The schedule stayed on track and I had plenty of opportunities to shoot portraits of the happy couple. The food was delicious and the cupcakes by The Wild Plum Cafe got devoured and the dance party at the end was epic. It is safe to say a good time was had by all.
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When Athena, Anthony and I went searching for spots for their engagement photos in Monterey, we found a beautiful clearing under a stand of pine trees along Monterey’s rocky coastline near Lover’s Point.
The couple liked the spot so much, they decided to hold their Monterey wedding ceremony under those same trees.
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