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July 11, 2011 by scottmacdonaldweddings

Camille & Doug’s Monterey wedding reception

On my way to Camille & Doug’s Monterey wedding reception, I encountered the worst traffic on Highway 101 that I’ve ever seen in my nine years of living in California.

The one-hour trip from my house in San Jose to Monterey took two and a half hours, including an ill-advised detour off of the highway and directly into a farmers market.

I was worried my late arrival would get things off to a bad start, but instead, I found a smiling Camille, surrounded by family, getting her hair done, telling me that it’s no problem.

The relaxed and happy mood I found with Camille and her family on the sunny deck of their Monterey hotel continued throughout the entire event. This day was a celebration of family — Camile & Doug had already gotten married in New York state and even had a second reception there. The Monterey wedding reception I was covering was the third stop on their cross-country wedding tour.
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July 10, 2011 by scottmacdonaldweddings

Annie & Mike engagement

When deciding on a location for an engagement session, the first thing I do is ask the couple where they like to go: What are they into, what kind of places reflect who they are?

For Annie and Mike I didn’t have to ask: We’re old friends, and I knew that they’re true locals of Oldtown Salinas.

Mike and I have worked together at newspapers since my very first professional job as a reporter in 1996. We’ve got great old stories of the days when we were both learning the craft, sitting side by side in the small, stuffy newsroom of a daily paper in a tiny old Florida town. We’ve both gone many other places in our careers, but we ended up in Salinas, me running the photo department and Mike running the entire newsroom.
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May 27, 2011 by scottmacdonaldweddings

Bridget & Amadeo engagement

Bridget and Amadeo are planning a rock-and-roll themed wedding, so we did our best to add a touch of rock and roll to their engagement session: We shot outside of a couple punk clubs, we hopped a fence, we ended at a bar with a few pints.

Our locations were around downtown San Jose, all within walking distance of our houses. St. James Park, the post office, the court house, Circle of Palms Plaza. Amadeo kept us laughing by quoting funny lyrics and dropping the funniest pick-up line I’ve ever heard: ” You got a number to go with that face?” The talented Conner Jay came along to work my softbox-on-a-stick.

In the end, we came away with a great set of pictures and had a great time. If their San Francisco wedding is half as fun as their San Jose engagement session, we’re going to have a blast.
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May 23, 2011 by scottmacdonaldweddings

Christine & Chris engagement

When I was planning where to do an engagement session with Christine and Chris, we considered going to a park for hiking or a winery for wine tasting — but in the end we decided to combine the ideas, and hike to some wine tasting on a mountaintop.

We went to Henry Coe State Park near Morgan Hill on a sunny Sunday in late February. On our way to the park, we stopped for photos at a lake and a very pretty barn. But the real payoff was inside the park itself, where we found dramatic-looking trees silhouetted against deep blue skies. We even found a little snow sticking to the shadowy parts of the hilltops.
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