First Ever JC/OC Workshop Sneak Peek! Fri. September 25, 2009 photographers
Since the workshop ended late on Wednesday night, I've been working nonstop on the images because I'm just so excited about all the details and fun stuff that we shot! I will post a full recap of the workshop very soon complete with more photos of our gorgeous couple, details, shots of the students, and all that good stuff, but I'm getting married in just over a week and I've got some serious planning to do!
For now, feast your eyes on these detais, and click the links below to see the great peeps that made this shoot possible!
Portrait of a first birthday Sun. September 20, 2009 people
These are are the things I know about Larkin, Age 1:
1. She has a hot momma:
2. She has a loving and talented dad (he's the one who BUILT AND CONSTRUCTED the wall in this photos. If you need ANY construction done of any kind, he could probably build a house from scratch. next week. by himself. email him at jaren.nuzman@gmail.com. Seriously, crown molding, custom work, you name it.
3. She absolutely adores her big brother (and vice versa):
4. She is trusting, inquisitive, vulnerable and confident:
5. She fits in perfectly with her family (and she is lucky that I am a photographer, not a videographer. for that matter, so are you--the whining emitting from this beautiful child during this part of the shoot might disrupt your viewing)
6. She loves sparkly things:
7. She always has fun!
8. She is a good sport:
(no babies were harmed for this photo, but a cake will never be the same. Kamee and I have a running joke about how Larkin would make a great cake topper for my wedding cake, so we decided to try it out just to make sure she'd work out. she did.)
Cheyenne & Daniel's Wedding! Thu. September 17, 2009 i do
This summer has absolutely flown by! In a sea of my own wedding planning, I haven't shared as many weddings with you as I normally do, but I have LOTS of great ones to show you!
This summer, I was lucky enough to fly up to Los Gatos for Cheyenne & Daniel's absolutely magnificent event. The entire celebration took place in Cheyenne's parents' back yard, which was just SO beautiful and picturesque. Honestly, there's nothing I love more than a backyard wedding, especially when the yard is as stunning as this one!
Cheyenne and Daniel have a love that is so obvious. Even with 300 guests (or more!), a ton of details to string together, and a very very busy day, they were always smiling and happy to be together and to share their love with everyone. Watching them made me so excited for my own day, which, if I manage to keep cool even a fraction as well as Cheyenne did, I will consider a success :)
Moving along, I know what you really want is to see the photos!!
Cheyenne wore these jaw-dropping raspberry colored Manolo Blahniks! I love when a bride chooses something other than white shoes--it adds character!
The light in this bedroom was glowy:
Have you ever seen a more perfect bow?
Cheyenne and her dad seemed to me to have a really special relationship. I loved watching his reaction as he saw her for the first time in her wedding gown:
Daniel, looking dapper in his tux. He was so laid back!
While waiting for a few more of the groomsmen to show up, I capture this shot of Daniel laughing--I think it really shows the relaxed and fun mood of the day:
Have you seen a more stunning bride? Really, she was so happy that EVERY photo of her looks like this:
A beautiful bouquet, designed by the Flower Divas--their work was fantastic!
The girls shoes were so adorable!
Cheyenne and Daniel did a first look, where they say each other before the ceremony. It was so helpful because we were able to shoot all the family photos beforehand so that the friends and family could fully enjoy the cocktail hour.
Look at this tree! The backyard is really a perfect spot for weddings:
This is the area below the house that was used for all the guests to hang out before the ceremony, as well as retreat for cocktail hour. It created the perfect setting for the day:
Cheyenne walking down the aisle was so cute--she only saw Daniel:
I love these next two shots--Cheyenne's dad giving her this one last look...
And how happy he is to welcome Daniel to the family!
The ceremony was HOT but it was really heartfelt and beautiful. The judge had been a friend of the family for many years, and you could really tell how personal the marriage by the ceremony he gave:
Cheyenne and Daniel watching their friend who sang in the wedding:
My favorite shot of the day and maybe my favorite ceremony shot ever:
Married!!
This shot makes me happy--I don't know why, I just love it:
It must be so nice to FINALLY get to be Mr. & Mrs.!
They certainly seemed very excited about it :)
This series of photos was all done in about 20 minutes right after the ceremony while the guests were moving from the ceremony area into the lounge around the pool:
I love love love this one:
And this one:
The couple met in France, so of course they needed an Eiffel Tower to make a little appearance somewhere:
Again, these flowers were so gorgeous! So was the light...
This shot says so much to me. Receptions are busy and there are a LOT of people around. It is my absolute favorite thing when the couple still makes time to take a few moments to enjoy it together. This moment lasted just a few seconds, but I love how they were together throughout the night. Even when they would separately talk to their friends, they would always come together and check in, kiss, and chat for a few minutes. It was such a pleasure to watch them!
Check out the slideshow below to see more photos, details and good stuff!
Cheyenne & Daniel, I have loved working with you every step of the way. Your wedding was absolutely beautiful, and I hope your marriage will be every bit as lovely. Thank you so much for having me!!
More About My Wedding (Because It's Getting Closer....) Tue. September 8, 2009 plan!
Wow, thank you so much for all of the comments on the invitations! I wanted to share a little bit more about the process of their creation, now that there are finally photos to go along with them. I also wanted to share one more of my vendors with you all, but first about the invites...
For years, I've been having my business cards (up until my most recent variation due to the fact that it is metal and needed a specific process to create), letterhead, and custom album boxes made by an EXTREMELY talented designer/letterpress artist. I've shared her name and contact information many times in my workshops and through email, but never on this blog, mostly because I have been afraid that she will explode into the outer stratosphere of busy and not be able to micromanage things like hand selecting the perfect books to use for invitations any more.
But it's time.
The mastermind behind the save the dates and invitations (it was a group effort to formulate the concept, but she single-handedly spent WEEKS carving them, gluing them, sourcing the individual pieces, and creating the finished pieces) is a wunderkind named Kari Dyas:
Tell her I sent you, so maybe she'll still squeeze me in every now and then :)
She will work with your theme, budget, and crazed-on-crack ideas to create pieces that are truly works of art. Literally every single time I have picked up something Kari has created, I've been stunningly aware that the time and effort that have gone into it has been Kari's alone, and she is genius. Letterpress is her particular specialty, but there's literally nothing she can't do.
Jose, like Kari, was chosen because he is the best in the world at what he does. I don't believe the every photographer (or any photographer) is the best at everything. I think that certain people are the best at specific things, and Jose is the best at the particular kind of wedding that Jeff and I are going to be having.
My priorities for my photographer were:
1. that he/she be someone whose work I looked at and LOVED
2. that he/she love shooting the kind of wedding we are having
3. that I be confident that he/she photograph Jeff and I to bring out our best qualities both physically and in allowing us to show our relationship in front of the camera
4. that I be able to look at the wedding photos and know undoubtedly that he/she did the best job with our day that could be done
No pressure, right :)
Seriously though, I turned down offers from AMAZING photographers that were incredibly generous because I knew once the wedding started to come together that Jose was the person would would be able to meet the above requirements not because he was forced or asked to, but because that is what he simply WILL do once he's at the wedding. His work is so beautiful, so etherial and lovely that I can't wait to have it in my home.
Here are a few examples of why I chose Jose:
Jose just sees so much beauty in simple things. His work isn't trying to be the most hip, the most cool, or the most crazy, it's just natural, beautiful, captured in an enchanting way, and organic. All of the things that Jeff and I have attempted to bring into the wedding. Jose is not the obvious choice, he was the only real choice from the start.
By the way, there may still be a slot or two open in Jose's MEXICO WORKSHOP, November 16-19 which I will be teaching at alongside him! Jeff will be there too, and who knows--we may bring our wedding outfits and try to sneak into a few of the photos. Hope to see you there!
Well, because it is Friday (and I always love to celebrate Fridays), I am going to post something I've been waiting to post for a very very long time (my whole blogging life)...my wedding save the dates and invitations!
Now that they are out and most of the people I've been waiting to receive them have received them, I am so excited to share them with you all. Now, as you know, our wedding has a vintage, 1920's London sort of vibe, but it will also have an upscale, elegant, sophisticated twist. While I love the rugged look, when done without a touch of glamour, it just looks a little more rough than I prefer. So, since Jeff will be wearing those beat up looking old shoes with an Armani suit, our rustic invitations and paperwork needed a little dressing up as well...
First, of course, I will share the save the dates. The STD's, as they'll be known henceforth, came from the concept that I didn't want to send out something that was just paper and ink. I really wanted each one to be different in some way, and I wanted it to be a piece that people wouldn't want to throw away (although of course I know that people did!!)
Here we go! The invitation is in four pieces, and each one is handmade out of letterpressed tags or stitched muslin. This is what they look like (by the way, our wedding invitation is seen somewhere in this picture...can you guess where?):
Each one has an antique key attached to the ribbon--every key is different. As the wedding has locks and keys all throughout, we wanted to bring that in as early as the save the date.
Here's another view, with the copper envelope the STD's were sent in below:
One more look so you can see the first tag with the ribbon put behind the back:
Here is what each piece looks like. The tags were tea stained to give them an aged look. The bottom layer, pictured bottom left is actually muslin that was printed on and stitched to a piece of cardstock. On the back of each STD, there is a page torn from the book Portrait of a Marriage--each page is different and was meticulously cut to match the size of the front.
The overall effect was to create something that looked old but still colorful!
We intentionally left the fraying edges of the thread and the muslin to make them feel even more handmade.
Now...on to the invitations!!
They came in a box:
Huh? Just a box of old books, you say? Not quite :) They are our invitations! Here are Angel and Chenin
I even had my mom working hard on these things:
Note Chenin's concentration--she's a very good crafter. There's Angel at the bottom showing off the final packaging!
Aren't they pretty books? If you received one, I know you were glad we thought of you enough to send you a dusty old book:
Okay, you probably guessed that they are not ordinary books by now. No, they are HOLLOWED OUT BOOKS! In keeping with our theme, our wedding invitation hides away, tucked safely inside a hollowed out book. Each one is completely different--each book was lovingly bought from an old bookstore and chosen for it's particular color cover, title, thickness, or inside pattern.
When you open the book, this is what you see:
The pocket on the left hand side is a very thick, copper paper from Kate's Paperie. On the right, a steel grey grosgrain ribbon holds the invitation in and is sealed with a copper wax seal with a photo of a lock (scroll down lower for a close up). On the invitation itself which lays in the hollow, a single, antique button is affixed to each invitation. Every one is incredibly detailed and different and took many HOURS of scouring ebay:
Here's a close up of the wax seal with the lock:
A few of the different invitations themselves so you can see the buttons better. You can also see that each one was letterpressed and burned around the edges:
Inside the front coppery library card pocket were four things: a map with all location details, a list of events for the day before the wedding, a response card, and an envelope:
The map was done by a mapmaker and looks amazing. I love how she even has these cute little icons to denote each location!
The one on the right is my personal copy--my favorite one of all of them:
So there you go! I will tell you that I loved them so much that it was almost painful to send them out into the world. The saddest thing of all is that each person only received one, so that they couldn't have a whole pile of them together to look at and explore. There were some particularly special ones in the batch of them.
And the best part is, you can get rid of the silly invitation and hide cash in that baby afterwards!
I'm so glad I could finally share these with all of you!! One month left to go...
.gif)
photographers
