Heidi Ryder Photography: The Blog » Southern California and Destination Wedding Photography

When Jennifer and David mentioned they take the metro to Los Angeles’ Union Station frequently and visit Olvera Street often, I knew those locations were the perfect spots for their engagement session.  Union Station is a favorite place to shoot for many photographers – and with good reason. The light, architecture and details there are exquisite! And you can’t beat the color and energy on Olvera Street. I found out Olvera Street was where these two had their first date, which is so awesome!

Jennifer and David used to work with another one of my 2010 brides, Jessica. You may remember Jessica and Nick’s Long Beach engagement session.  I think it’s super fun when my brides know each other – almost like we’re keepin’ it in the family.

My day with Jennifer and  David started at their apartment as they really wanted some photos with their very beloved cat, Vanessa. Vanessa is quite old and has some health problems and she is very clearly adored by both Jennifer and David. I definitely understand the bond between humans and pets so I was happy to capture some photos of the three of them.  Vanessa did her best to hide her disdain for me and my camera and posed for the camera a little bit.

She has the most gorgeous eyes I’ve ever seen on an animal. Ever.

So, after I sufficiently annoyed their cat, I followed Jennifer and David to Union Station, where we were greeted by what felt like thousands of people. It was a busy day at Union Station. Turned out everyone was there to take the train into Pasadena for the U2 concert. We managed just fine, though. The crowd just meant Jennifer and David had an audience besides myself while making out.

These two spent the entire day making each other laugh, which was a lot of fun to watch. And it never fails, every engagement session I shoot, someone always ends up getting bit.

We headed over to Olvera Street for a little bit. What do you do when you’re visitng Olvera Street with a photographer who keeps telling you to walk towards the camera? Well, you tango, of course!

After we wrapped up our session, we hit up Phillipe’s, which I had never been to! David and Jennifer treated me to a french dip, which was amazing. Thanks, guys! I can’t wait for your wedding at the LA River Center in April!

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Now that wedding season is winding down, I am excited to finally have time to jump right into family portrait sessions, just in time for the holidays! Personalize your family’s holiday cards with beautiful photographs that will bring joy throughout the holidays- and well beyond.

Mini-sessions must be scheduled between now and November 21st to ensure delivery by December 1st – leaving plenty of time to get your holiday cards addressed, stamped and mailed off! Check out the adorable designs I’m offering below. Love them!

Holiday cards are also available to my 2009 wedding and portrait clients. If you’re interested in ordering, just pick your favorite design, the photos you’d like to include in the design, and email me at heidi@heidiryder.com to place your order!

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Jennifer and James were married this past weekend. Their wedding at Serenity Oaks Ranch in Valley Center, CA was a rustic garden affair that was both elegant and charming. When I first met Jennifer and James earlier this year, Jennifer was full of ideas for DIY wedding projects and seemed just giddy at the thought of seeing those ideas come to life on her wedding day.  I couldn’t wait to see what Jennifer had up her sleeve and I certainly wasn’t disappointed!

Jennifer loves to garden and all of her wedding details were a nod to her favorite pastime. Potted flowers adorned tables which were named after flowers, place cards were potted pillars of flower seeds and even included personalized pouches of seeds for the guests to plant at home. What a great way to give a gift that keeps on giving. I was so excited for Jennifer and James- they were married on a gorgeous day in front of friends and family who were all filled to the brim with happiness.  A big thank you to Mary Frances for her invaluable  help!

Here are a few of my favorites!

Jennifer and James’ ceremony was lovely. They put their own twist on a unity candle by imprinting their handprints into wet cement and having their wedding party each place a smooth pebble into the same cement. When the cement dries they will have a token of this day that will last forever and will be perfect for their very own garden!

Married!

The ranch was a great place for bridal portraits because it’s huge and had lots of great shade trees. I took the newlyweds around the grounds right after they were hitched and we spent some time making some beautiful portraits of just the two of them.

Here are some of those yummy details I mentioned before.

As the sun went down, the party began. There was lots of laughter and happiness all around.

I think my favorite part of the entire day was when Jennifer surprised James (and just about everyone else) with a song. It was sooo great! I love when brides and grooms surprise each other with something like that at the reception.

Congratulations, Jennifer and James! I am so honored to have spent such a wonderfully meaningful day with you. I hope you are having an amazing time in Cancun!

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A couple of weeks ago I flew north for a Berkeley engagement session with my good friends, Ken and Jennifer. Chris and I have known Ken for almost 7 years now, and when he started dating Jennifer a few years ago I was really excited because she and I have a lot in common. We have the same favorite band, we love crafting, we love owls, we even have similar features (though, clearly, she’s way more attractive).  She’s like my prettier, Cuban sister!

These two got engaged earlier this year and I was so honored when they asked me to be the photographer for their Berkeley wedding in October 2010. They flew me up to their neck of the woods for an engagement session and we pretty much spent the entire time cracking up. That’s just what we do when we’re together.

We started off at The Pub, which is a local bar that they like to go to. I had the idea of capturing some “slice of life” stuff where the two of them hang out at the places they like to frequent and I am just along for the ride, capturing what I see. I think it was pretty nice of me to allow them to enjoy a pint of good beer and a rousing game of Chutes & Ladders. I’m just cool like that.

After I got them good and drunk, we stopped at a few spots around town that were pretty and good for picture takin’.

The next two shots are numbers 417 and 418 of 5 million wherein Jennifer is totally cracking up because of something Ken said or did. This is why they are one of the best couples I know.

Oh, and the following shot on the left is another reason why they’re one of the best couples I know. Rawr!

These next two are my favorites from the day. Love that yummy sunlight.

Finally, we ended the day with a cookie and yummy sodas at Saul’s Deli.

Thanks, you guys! I so can’t wait for your wedding!

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Dorie and John’s Memphis wedding is a favorite of so many people these days! I was so pleased to wake up this morning and see my work featured on Brenda’s Wedding Blog – a great blog that Dorie herself read often for inspiration. So cool!

Here’s a screen shot of the post, go read it in its entirety and peruse the rest of the great stuff that Brenda has blogged about – it’s a fantastic resource for brides. Thanks, Brenda!

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About a week after Annie and Robin’s Los Angeles Arboretum wedding, I received an email from Annie asking me to photograph some portraits of her mom and three aunts, who live in Australia. It was the first time in quite a while that all four sisters were in the same country together and Annie wanted to commemorate it with a photo shoot – not a bad idea, if I do say so myself!

So,  a couple of days later I met Annie’s mom and aunts (and Robin – Hi, Robin!) at Lacy Park in San Marino. I have to admit I wasn’t quite sure at first how I would go about posing four sisters for portraits – it’s not something I do every day. I realized very quickly, though, that I had nothing to worry about – these ladies knew exactly what they were doing. They were models and now I totally know where Annie gets it from!

Annie’s dad and one of her uncles even tagged along for the shoot and so I included them in a few, as well. It was a fun shoot and I’m so glad I got to get some portraits of these four sisters before they had to return to having an entire ocean between them. Here are a few of my favorites:

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I was so pleased to receive an email today from Abby at Style Me Pretty, letting me know she was featuring Dorie and John’s Memphis wedding on her amazing blog today! SMP is one of my favorite wedding blogs on the planet and I check it daily for inspiration. If you’re planning a wedding, or just like to look at pretty things, make sure you check it out!

I was even more pleased to find that not only did Abby feature the wedding, but she featured their Memphis rehearsal dinner, as well!

Here’s a screen shot from the rehearsal dinner post. Click the image to see the full post!

And here’s part one of the wedding post:

And here’s part two of the wedding post!

I am so honored to see my work on Style Me Pretty, along with all of the other beautiful images that have been featured there. Such a treat! Dorie and John planned an amazing wedding, and I’m so glad the photos are able to serve as inspiration for future brides who are looking to plan unique weddings for themselves!

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Dorie and John’s wedding weekend came to a close with a Day After session. A Day After session is just what it sounds like – a photo session that takes place the day after a couples’ wedding. The benefit of one of these sessions is two-fold: the couple gets to wear their wedding attire one more time in a setting other than their wedding venue, and their portrait session isn’t under any sort of time crunch. These sessions are a stress-free way to get a variety of bridal portraits, often times with a different look and feel than the ones taken on their wedding day. Dorie and John’s Day After session took place in front of the world-famous Sun Studio and on Beale Street in Memphis. In case you missed, them, check out their Memphis rehearsal dinner and their beautiful wedding at The Inn at Hunt-Phelan.

I loved the idea of capturing the juxtaposition of a bride and groom in their wedding attire among the grittiness of urban Memphis streets. This is my first shoot of this nature and I can’t wait to do more. Many thanks to Dorie and John for getting themselves dolled up again after a long weekend and letting me play with this idea. I love the images we made together.

We started at Sun Studio. To those not in the know, Sun Studio is the place where Elvis Presley (among many other rock ‘n roll legends) recorded many early demos and singles. This place is a pretty big deal.

Finally we moved on to Beale Street which is like the Bourbon Street of Memphis. We had a lot of fun here.

I had such an amazing time in Memphis and I was so honored to be chosen as the photographer for Dorie and John’s wedding. I felt like an important part of their entire weekend, which was so great. Congratulations, Mr. & Mrs. Nolt! I love you both!

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Dorie and John’s wedding at The Inn at Hunt-Phelan in Memphis was nothing short of amazing. You may remember them from their rehearsal dinner, featuring an Elvis impersonator. Obviously this wedding was destined to be a good one, right?

What I loved about this wedding is Dorie and John weren’t afraid to do things their way. They didn’t follow any traditions unless they wanted to, and in fact, they even made up their own. The details of the wedding were a lovely arrangement of vintage elements mixed with beautifully-crafted DIY projects. Needless to say, this wedding was a dream to photograph.

There is just so much I wanted to share about this wedding, keep reading and you’ll understand why I had a hard time cutting this post down. Everything looked so great!

Dorie and John both got ready in separate quarters of The Inn at Hunt-Phelan. I say this over and over again, but it’s worth repeating: photographing a bride and/or groom getting ready for their wedding is one of my favorite parts of the day.  Dorie’s beautiful hair flower was made by JMG Jewelry Design.

Dorie wore three strands of pearls – each of them handed down from a different woman in her family. Wedding jewelry just doesn’t get any more special than that, does it?

I just adored the details of Dorie’s dress, and she looked absolutely gorgeous in it.

Meanwhile, our happy groom was getting ready for his day, and looking pretty snazzy, too.

Dorie and John chose not to see each other before the ceremony, which was just fine because their ceremony started early enough so we had plenty of amazing light to work with afterward. It was fun sneaking around the grounds taking solo portraits of them before the ceremony.

So, here is something wonderful. The only fresh flowers used at this wedding were for Dorie and her Maid of Honor’s bouquets. That’s it. The boutineirres were made out of folded maps and were purchased from Hope and Joy Studios on Etsy. I thought this was an amazing idea and the lack of fresh flowers phased absolutely no one. Love this! But, I think we can all agree at the fresh flower bouquets were quite gorgeous in their own right. They were provided by Gesture Gifts.

A vintage brooch from Dorie’s mother was pinned to her bouquet.

John runs an online music community called SongFight! and to propose to Dorie he enlisted the help of some of his SongFight friends by having them each write a love song for Dorie. When he posted those songs online, he showed them to Dorie and stayed nearby with a ring while she listened to the songs. So sweet! Those same songs were played during the ceremony and made into a mix CD called “Super Secret Love Maneuver”, which  was given out to the guests as a favor. The amazing programs were designed by Dorie’s friend, Sara Jackson.

This cute ring plate was made by Elm Studios – another Etsy find!

Dorie was walked down the aisle by both of her parents, which is something I love to see.

Now here’s where the new traditions come in. Dorie and John decided to literally “tie the knot” during their ceremony. They used two pieces of rope – one from Dorie’s family, and one from John’s family – and tied the two ends together. I thought this was a beautiful idea and I fully expect it to catch on and see it in other weddings!

Hooray, they’re married!

The grounds at The Inn were beautiful and perfect. I stole these two away after their ceremony and had so much fun photographing them. I think they had fun, too.

Never has sun flare in a portrait been more appropriate. You Are My Sunshine sign made by YeeHaw Industries.

Here are even more amazing details from the reception. I think i squeed a million times checking out all the craftiness that was put into this wedding.

These beautiful (and yummy!) cupcakes were provided by Sugar Bowl Cupcakes. The birds cake topper  was made by Dorie and embellished with a piece of Dorie’s mom’s wedding dress and some old modeling clay of John’s – making it unique and special to them.

In lieu of the standard floral centerpieces, beautiful lanterns adorned the tables and guests were invited to take their favorite ones home. Now that’s what I call a wedding favor!

And of course there was a photo booth. This one was from Party Booths, and it was an absolute hit.

The rest of the night was one big dance party, naturally. These are people who know how to have fun. I will leave you with these sweet images of Dorie and John’s first dance as husband and wife.

There are a million more images where these came from, but I must stop here! Stay tuned for another post featuring this couple’s Day After session on Beale Street. Yes! You are excited! So am I.

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