Lisa & Shaun's San Antonio Engagement Session Sat. October 31, 2009 will you
What is the proper beginning to a love story? Is it traditional dates with roses and candy? Is it a setup through friends of friends? Lisa and Shaun might tell you it's going to Jamaica on spring break in college, recognizing an electric connection in someone you meet randomly, and five years, several moves, long distance dating, and two dogs later becoming engaged to the love of your life.
it's not typical, but then again, neither are Lisa & Shaun.
Lisa is dynamic, petite (4'10" and that's taller than some members of her family!), quick witted, stylish, and kind. Shaun is intelligent, tall (over 6 feet), easygoing, friendly, chivalrous, and so incredibly sweet to Lisa.
I hadn't met Shaun before I arrived at their house in San Antonio at 9am this morning, but he immediately welcomed me with a hug and a warm "come on in!". I liked him immediately.
Lisa and Shaun are people of very varied interests, so we decided to incorporate a few of them into their shoot. Two of their interests are their dogs, Dexter (the big one) and Pixie (the small one). The dogs are just like them--one big one and one small one :)
Dexter was quite rambunctious, so as I do with children at family shoots, I decided it would be good to let him run around to blow off a little steam:
A little family photo:
Shaun and Lisa have such an easy rapport with one another. They were very natural and even if they felt a little awkward, they were so comfortable together that it was easy for them to show their personalities:
I love the bottom photo because both dogs are looking at me but neither of the people are:
We were actually scheduled to shoot the evening of the previous day, but the forecast called for rain. Lisa and I decided to postpone the shoot to the following morning, and of course there was no rain on the original afternoon and a nasty forecast for our new morning! When I woke up, it was hideous out--cold, rainy and windy, but it cleared right up and became a perfect day!
I saw this field on the way from Jeff's parents home (they live in San Antonio--very convenient!!) to Lisa & Shaun's house and just HAD to shoot there:
California light? Please! Texas is where it's at!
It can't hurt to have a few cacti in the photos (actually it can--I STILL have a few needles in my jeans!)
Well worth it, thought:
I love this one:
Lisa told me that they have a frame that says, "Home" and wanted an image to suit. I think these two would work very well:
Especially this one:
We headed down to the riverwalk so they could show their more fun side:
I just had to poke a little fun at the height difference:
Lisa mentioned to me while we were at the house that she had gotten into smoking cigars! We happened to be near a cigar shop, so we stopped in so they could snag a couple--it made for great photo ops:
These two are my faves of the day:
We really wanted to shoot some colorful things and we did!!
love the colors in this one:
and the attitudes in this one:
And the feel of this one:
Lisa & Shaun, thank you for letting me into your lives today! I had an amazing time with you and can't wait to be a part of your wedding next year!
Wedding at the San Ysidro Ranch in Santa Barbara: Carrie & Jayson Wed. October 28, 2009 i do
A couple of weeks before my wedding, I shot the most beautiful little wedding up at the San Ysidro Ranch in California. I'm behind on blogging (for obvious reasons) and I have a ton of weddings and shoots to share, but I just had to show a few photos from this little gem of a venue. It's up in Santa Barbara and such a hidden jewel! The San Ysidro Ranch is intimate, wild, beautiful, lush, and all the things anyone could ever want in a wedding venue. The wedding I photographed there had all the same qualities--it was one of my favorite things I've ever shot from start to finish!
The ceremony itself was so simple and sweet--just like Carrie and Jayson (and Carrie's son Maverick). Maverick is such a show-stealer--what a little ham! I wish I could share more photos, but this wedding is submitted for publication so I can't show too much. It would be such a shame not to share just a few favorites though:
This photos is typical of what you might see around any corner at San Ysidro:
Carrie getting her makeup done by the wonderful Stacey Craven. Her hair was incredible also and was crafted by a true artist, Sheila Stone:
A nice little family photo:
Carrie is a stunner. Her Elizabeth Fillmore dress was to DIE for, and this bouquet....well let's just say that floral designer Kate Holt of Flower WildOUTDID herself for this stunning masterpiece:
Carrie being walked down the aisle by a serious faced Maverick (great name, huh??)
The lilac fields at San Ysidro--I could shoot this wedding every day of the week and twice on Sunday:
So many places to shoot:
I SO WISH I could show you every little detail of this cocktail area and reception and at some point I will, but you can get the idea from this photo:
The every amazing Alexandra of Alexandra K coordinated every single little detail and managed to look gorgeous doing it:
An intimate, 5 course dinner--what could be better?!
I also had a wonderful time with the video team of Curtis & Laura from Living Cinema! I can't wait to see what they come up with. This was a wonderful team to work with all the way around.
If anyone out there is getting married at San Ysidro Ranch, let me know and I'll be there in a split second!
Congratulations Carrie & Jayson--you are wonderful together!
Before I did my first workshop, I was VERY reluctant to teach workshops. Most of the experience I have with teaching has been to large groups at places like WPPI. I feel like those big groups are hard for me because I can't possibly connect with anyone individually and can't see if what I'm saying is resounding with anyone. This means that I would have no opportunity to fix what I'm doing if people aren't getting what I need, and that is very frustrating for me.
My first workshop experience was so very different.
When people started showing up, I was SO nervous! Here was this group of people who came to see ME, some from VERY far away. I knew that expectations were high, and I wanted to badly to share with them. I just hoped they wouldn't fall asleep! As the day progressed, the energy in the room was absolutely electric. I could see people starting to make connections with what I was saying, and more importantly with each other and in their own lives! I loved keeping the group small enough to allow people to ask questions all day--I loved feeling like I was giving people what they needed from me. I wanted to give a workshop every day for the rest of my life!
We also had the most amazing couple modeling for us: Gena and Jeff. They're incredible--check them out:
Wanna sign up? Here's the deal:
The DATE: January 13th, 2010
The LOCATION: My place here in Ladera Ranch, in Orange County
THE DEAL:
I'll be honest with you--I don't consider myself a public speaker, or even a naturally gifted teacher. But I do have a desire to help photographers grow and share what I've learned in a small-group setting where we speak frankly and honestly about the challenges presented to us every day. I want a class who is open, who wants to participate and share, and who wants to GROW!
If this sounds like you, **REGISTER HERE**. Once you submit that form, you are officially on the list to take the class--if you are given a seat, you must accept and agree to pay for it. You'll hear back in two days or less if you are in the class, and you'll get all kinds of good info like where to stay, who else will be there, and you can start telling me what you need to help your business or your photography to GROW!!
**WORKSHOP IS FULL--PLEASE GO TO THE WEBSITE TO GET ON THE WAITING LIST FOR THE NEXT ONE**
I should note that we had a very very talented team of people helping to make the last workshop look beautiful! It looks like the January 13th workshop will be just as incredible because I just received word that the INCREDIBLE Lollipop Ladies will be designing our wedding setup!
The team of people for the last workshop were amazing and included:
Before the wedding, I asked my photo friends who were attending the wedding to come and enjoy the day as guests. One of my closest friends, Becker, isn't much of a rule follower, so he snagged a few shots throughout the day. You should head over to his blog to look at them! I love the shots he got, especially the ones of me and Jeff below.
I am being interviewed by Becker today at 4pm PST, so make sure to head on over to THE CHATROOM today to ask me any questions you want LIVE! Also, if you are a photographer and haven't joined The B School yet, better get on it--you're missing lots! Now that the wedding is over, I'll be posting there much more often.
Now, back to our regularly scheduled programming...
I can't even express to you in words how much I love my photos from Jose Villa! They perfectly capture the wedding so well, and looking at them makes me happy!
One of the most frequently asked questions about the wedding has been "How are you going to pick a photographer?? Won't that be hard??" The truth is, Jose was the very first person we picked once we knew what kind of wedding we'd be having (and honestly, even before). Another question has been, "Why did you choose a film photographer? Does that mean that you think film is better" The answer to that is I didn't choose a film photographer. I chose JOSE because JOSE has the eye I want capturing my wedding, not because film is better. Jose could have shot my wedding with a box of cornflakes for all I care if he could make images this beautiful.
What I love about Jose's work is that it has a definitive point of view--I knew what I was going to get. I wanted photos that were stunning, soft, pretty, clean, natural, and breathtaking, all of which I received. He's just the best! I am sure that he felt some pressure going into this wedding, but personally, I was not nervous at all because I hired him to do the specific thing he is best at and most enjoys.
Today I want to showcase the rest of the wedding, in particular the location, the flowers, and the details (mixed in with my favorite moments).
The location is none other than the magnificent 3 Stones Vineyard. I have never worked with sweeter, kinder, and more eager to please people than Briana and Brian, the owners. They worked SO hard to make their property perfect for the wedding, even mowing out specific pieces for our events, giving us free reign to have the different parts of the wedding where we wanted, and going WAY above the call of duty to help us out all the way through the process. Here is a shot of Briana and Brian:
Because the property is so wild and beautiful, I knew that we needed a very very special florist to work with it and make it look both lush and stunning without being cliche and wedding-y. We hit the jackpot by hiring Gilly Flowers. Neil and Sharon from Gilly worked SO SO hard to bring our vision to life. They also tipped right over amazing into spectacular by coming up with their own touches (such as the jeweled bugs in the arrangements) for the knockout. Check out some of my favorite shots of what they did:
I was also in love with my bouquet--all the way around. I love the nubbly yarn wrapping, the vintage stick pin "J", the mix and colors of the flowers in the bouquet...just everything!!
One thing that I particularly loved was this antique file cabinet--what they did with it was incredible:
My favorite part of the wedding day was the ceremony. Not just the decor (although it was amazing), but having everyone we are close to there with us (mostly), looking out at everyone and seeing our family and friends...all amazing. We chose not to do a first look, as Jeff is more traditional and not used to weddings every weekend like me! I told him that "that moment" when you see each other isn't usually that great, that it's hard to concentrate with everyone around, but I was COMPLETELY wrong. I got to the back of that aisle with my dad, and Jeff was crying--it was so so cute! Neither of us expected that, and it almost made me lose it myself. Jeff's dad, Kim, is an Army Chaplain and he performed the ceremony--it was absolutely perfect. here are some of my favorite shots from that part of the day:
These chairs and sashes were the perfect pieces to look natural in this landscape. All of our rentals came from either Classic or Town & Country.
The sashes (along with all the table linens and napkins) were custom and done by Sin Dee Custom Sewing--they were amazing.
The wooden chairs were mixed in with pieces of vintage furniture that mostly came from an estate where they were handpicked for the wedding. Gilly Flowers outdid themselves creating an outdoor chapel with the stained glass pieces, which had custom brackets built for them to be free standing. I LOVE SO MUCH the heavy flowers adorning the tops. This yellow one was off to the side next to the ceremony, but they were randomly (but not so randomly) placed around the whole ceremony area:
The piece at the front of the ceremony was one I could look at over and over again--the shape of the window, the colors of the leaves--amazing. Fun fact--I did not want to see the ceremony OR reception setup before they were completely done on the wedding day--I wanted to be surprised! So we did the rehearsal at the hotel where everyone stayed, and I didn't go up the hill to see all this stuff till right before the ceremony :) Kabrel supervised the initial setup, Angel made sure every piece was set perfectly into place, and Gilly's team worked tirelessly and genius-ly to make every single piece stand out. It was so amazing.
Also, each teal sash had a vintage brooch embedded in the silk so that everyone would have a little something cool to look at while waiting for the ceremony to begin:
Locks and keys were a running theme through our wedding, and Neil set up an abandoned wooden fence behind the last row of chairs, which Angel & Kabrel hung vintage padlocks on!
The ceremony itself could not have been more idyllic. The weather, the mood, it was all perfection. Here are my two flower girls walking down the aisle with my ring bearer. We were a bit nervous that the ring bearer might not cooperate, but the real drama is that one of the flower girls started crying because she didn't want to hold hands with a boy! You can see the girls cracking up as the kids started to waver...
Walking down the aisle with my dad and seeing Jeff at the front was the best moment! It was so much fun to walk slowly and really enjoy each step. At this point, time seemed to slow down and I really saw every single thing that went into this day. If there was a single moment that makes wedding planning worth the trouble, this was mine. Also, note the antique persian rugs lining the aisle--what an incredible touch!!!
Although my dad walked me down the aisle, my mom joined us at the front to help give me away. Although my parents divorced just a couple of years ago, they remain good friends and I am so proud that they have been able to maintain a relationship with one another and not make things weird at times like this! It was a great part of the day:
Kim asked us to look out at everyone for part of the ceremony, and it was so nice to take a moment to really look. Also, for those that are wondering my headpiece for the ceremony is by a hat maker in NYC called Kokin
These two are just so perfect. I particularly like the one on the right because it shows my "something old"--my great-grandmother's bracelet that my grandmother gave me last year.
The shot that most perfectly captures the ceremony:
I love these two. I want to take a minute and tell you a little story about the photo on the right of Candice. When I asked Candice to be my MOH, she accepted excitedly, but because of some date changes early on, we found out that her due date would conflict with the wedding. So all the way through the planning process, I knew that Candice would not be able to come to the wedding, as she was due just two weeks before. Although I was really sad, we prayed for her baby to be healthy and come a week or a few days early to at least give her a chance at making it, but she went right to her due date and had a beautiful baby boy, Wyatt. Although she said all along that if she was feeling up to it, she would do everything she could to be there, we both knew that having a baby is really hard on your body and mind, so there was really no chance. We made our peace. And yet, here she is, standing up for me at my wedding, two weeks post-partum. She looks incredible, Wyatt was amazing all day, and we were both just so happy that she was able to be there. She is truly superhuman!!
MARRIED!!!
I'll be posting everything Post-Marriage later today or tomorrow--check back soon!
(all photos by Jose Villa unless otherwise noted. please do not remove from this site without permission. thanks!)
Since Style Me Pretty and Jose Villa and Angel and Becker will be posting all about the wedding from their points of view, I think it would be fun for me to share some info about the behind the scenes stuff like where I bought things, and how the event came together.
I don't even know where to start with all of this, so I suppose I will start with Jeff and I, first separately, and in a later post, together.
First of all, as you know, Jeff's shoes were the very first thing bought for the wedding, you can see them here. But I don't enjoy being outdone in the shoe department, so I had to come up with a pair of my own that would be suitable for the wedding! Since our main wedding color was copper with the hundreds of pots and containers we acquired, I found these coppery shoes and fell in instant love! They are by Christian Louboutin (pictured here with my invitations by Kari Dyas:
The shoes, however much I love them, were not the first thing I bought for the wedding. I actually bought my wedding dress while shopping with my mom two days after getting engaged! Fun fact about me--I have never tried on a real wedding gown so it would be a fun experience when I got to do it for real. My mom was heading back to North Carolina after coming out for the engagement and party so we decided to stop off at The White Dress in Costa Mesa. The dress I bought after trying on only three or four dresses was actually the one in the window.
I should tell you, that although I AM an impulse shopper, I can't believe I bought my wedding dress so quickly. I second guessed it quite a few times--I wasn't sure it was unique or interesting enough for me, although I did think it looked good on my shape. I decided that i would just have to funk it up with hair and accessories, so I ended up keeping it. The dress is by Amsale, and the style is Coco:
My favorite item that I wore the day of the wedding was my crown, by Etsy seller Whichgoose. I knew that I wanted to do something more unusual than real flowers or some sort of prom-y updo, and when I found this crown, I was hooked! I think it photographed even better than I expected--I was thrilled with it. For $50, I considered it a steal. Also, I removed the ribbon that came on the back of it and replaced it with a ribbon from my mothers' wedding dress. Check it:
I should note that the fabulous and talented Nicole Deanne and her assistant Chelsey made the long trip up to do hair and makeup for me and all the girls. I think they did a wonderful job!
I probably bought 3 or 4 different necklaces to wear on the wedding day. My sister in law Cyndie ended up wearing one of them, you can see that I have a pearl one on in the black and white photos, but the one I eventually chose to wear that day is a gold one with all different flowers. I think it was my best wedding find, $20 at Shop Ruche! I think it looked really pretty and at that price, if there had been more I would have bought them for my girls also. However, it was the last one and I had to email Mai to beg her to sell it to me :)
Enough about me for now--let's talk about Jeff! Can we just pause for a second and talk about how hot my husband is??
Jeff's outfit was chosen with as much or more careful consideration than mine was, believe it or not. One of the things that Jeff really wanted was to look GOOD on his wedding day, and that meant reflective of his rugged, vintage inspired style, but also unique and classy. Sounds easy, right? We eventually chose grey and browns for his color palette, although his shirt does have some deep purple in the stitching as well. His suit is by Armani, tie by Tom Ford, shirt by Etro, and of course, shoes by John Varvatos:
Jeff and I decided to give each other a gift the morning of the wedding. The gifts were sort of a surprise (but not really). I knew that he wanted a watch, and he knew that I wanted two wedding bands. We both received what we wanted. Jeff's watch, for those wondering is by Cuervo Y Sobrinos, and was the only one of its kind in the US when I bought it. I got it at Horologio in Las Vegas at the Venetian.
You may or may not believe this, but as much thought as it took to get Jeff and I wedding-ready, it was even more time consuming to dress the groomsmen! If we had been smarter, we would have chosen one outfit, told them to go rent it, and been done. As it was, we kept changing our minds because nothing we could rent looked good with the wedding at all, which meant that the outfits needed to be 1. handpicked, 2. affordable, 3. in a WIDE range of sizes and 4. looking good with the wedding as a whole. Dressing the groomsmen was not the most fun part of the wedding planning, and I might never go to Men's Warehouse again, but I do think they ended up looking fantastic!
All of the groomsmen are wearing distressed pants from J. Crew. The vest also came from J. Crew. The suspenders are from Macy's, as are the four striped ties. The four solid brown ties are from Men's Warehouse:
Good looking and oh-so-smooth:
I've never once seen Jeff ride a bike, but I love this shot! He told me yesterday when we were looking at the photos that they are all laughing because the bike was broken and he couldn't get it to stop!
The girls were easier in a way, although their outfits were more complicated in that no two are the same. I knew immediately that I didn't want to have them all in matching dresses. We ended up with right about 90 guests, and 8 bridesmaids, so having that many people all wearing the same outfit would look ridiculous! I wanted them all in outfits in fall colors, and my only real requirements were that 1. I like their dress and 2. they show their personal style. I figured that by going super eclectic, it would either work out REALLY REALLY well, or not look good at all, so I'm glad they all pulled it off so amazingly well!
I did have a hand in choosing the dresses, or at least approving them. I was the only one who knew what all the dresses looked like since the girls live all over the country, so I tried my best to make sure that they were all in the same ballpark of length and dressiness. Other than that, they had free reign! I personally think that the girls together is one of the cutest details of the whole wedding--man do my girls have STYLE!! Oh, and they are all absolutely beautiful:
So many things I love about this photo and the people in it:
My mom and Jeff's mom also looked stunning:
How about these little flower girls?? Finding their outfits was also more challenging than I first thought. I ordered a set of tutu's early on off Etsy that when they came were long enough to fit ME and were COMPLETELY see through. Not appropriate. Luckily though, I was able to find another tutu designer on Etsy called Ruffles and Stitches who custom made the tutus you see here. I LOVED them!!
Next up will be all about the flowers and details, so stay tuned!
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will you
