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

Heather and Mike were married on a perfectly lovely day in Orange County at Tivoli Terrace. You may remember these two from their Long Beach engagement session. If you recall, Heather and Mike are proud nerds. I like this about them because it is my belief that nerds make the world go ’round. I’m married to one, so I should know.

Heather and Mike’s nerdiness does not stop at wearing matching t-shirts for their engagement session. Because, why stop there when you can nerd out your wedding in amazingly great ways? Needless to say, this was a fun wedding with tons of personal touches. Just as it should be. My lovely friend Jen Grant joined me for this one and we had a blast.

Congratulations, Heather and Mike! Thanks for including me in your day. I hope you’re having a wonderful time in Greece!

Heather’s mom, Jeannie, got emotional the instant Heather was in her dress. It was really sweet.

This is the face of a girl who’s excited to be getting married!

A few rooms over, we popped in on Mike and his guys getting ready.

Mike and Heather opted for a first look so that most of the portraits could get finished before there ceremony, thereby leaving them more time to enjoy their reception. Good idea, I say.

I think this next shot might be my favorite of the day. It’s straight out of camera. The light was perfect and the moment was completely genuine. Love!

Right after the ceremony one of the first things these two did was … change their Facebook relationship status to “married.” Of course!

So here’s where some of the nerdiness comes in. As I mentioned during their engagement session post, Mike proposed to Heather through a game they both love called Kingdom of Loathing. The tables were named after different areas found in the game. The couple also provided little bags full of board games and activities for guests to entertain themselves with. But that’s not so much nerdery as much as it is just awesome.

The cake topper was made in the likeness of Kingdom of Loathing characters by one of Mike’s and Heather’s friends who owns a toy company called October Toys. It was PERFECT.

And let’s not forget the dragon champagne flutes, purchased from the Ren Faire. Awesome.

Heather saw my post about the custom Christmas ornament I had made in the likeness of our late dog, Frasier. She mentioned during their engagement session that she ordered some of their cats and I was so excited to see them make an appearance at the wedding! Thanks to Jen for lining them up to get this shot. The bride and groom on the left are manatees, which is Heather’s favorite animal. The cats are dressed up like Star Wars characters, in case you’re not a nerd.

All of the dances between husband/wife, father/daughter and mother/son were very sweet. Mike and his mom’s dance was particularly emotional. Both of them hugged tightly and cried and I’m sure there wasn’t a dry eye in the house.

There was a photo booth with props, courtesy of Party Booths. Heather and Mike don’t usually dress like this for special occasions. At least I don’t think they do.

Say what you will about nerds, the fact is, they sure do know how to party..

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Jackqueline and Jeremy were wed on a yacht! On water! That moved! This was my first boat wedding and it definitely kept things interesting. You may remember this beautiful couple from their Griffith Observatory engagement session, complete with pinwheels.  I know how excited these two were to finally tie the knot and I was so excited for them that their wedding day had finally arrived! I was lucky enough to have my dear friend, Jen Berry, along for the ride. Thanks for the help, Jen! And thanks to Jackqueline and Jeremy for allowing me to be a part of your very important day. It was an honor and I’m so happy for the two of you!

Here are a few of my favorites from the day:

Unsurprisingly, Jackqueline looked STUNNING. She wore vintage jewelry, purchased especially for this day. It was a perfect choice for her.

The ceremony programs were designed using one of their engagement photos, which also matched their wedding invitations, as it turns out. I love when details are all tied together.

After the Western ceremony, Jackqueline and Jeremy had a Chinese tea ceremony to honor her culture. I just adore the idea of tea service in general. There’s something so soothing about it.

I was finally able to sneak away with the newlyweds for a few portraits at the very top level of the yacht. One thing I hadn’t thought about before this wedding – where there’s a moving boat, there’s wind! But Jackqueline and Jeremy were total troopers and braved that cold wind like champs.

When we headed back inside, everything was situated for the party to start. An enlargement of another engagement photo was used as a guest book, which is a great idea!

And the pinwheels from their session made another appearance in the form of place cards, which I LOVED.

Dan of DV Artistry was the videographer at this wedding and he and his team did a same-day edit to show at the end of the reception. It was fun watching Jackqueline and Jeremy’s face light up as they watched it.

Once the boat docked at the end of the night, guests were welcomed by a group of Shaolin monks who put on an amazing performance. They did crazy things like this… (don’t let the calm face of the sledgehammer guy fool you. He was using quite a lot of force and it looked painful).

Also, this… Yes, that is a METAL rod that he is snapping like a twig over his head.

The look of concern on Jackqueline’s face and the look of awe on Jeremy’s says it all…

The happy couple had a fun send off with confetti poppers. While walking through the sprays of confetti I heard Jackqueline yell, “This is SO COOL!” I’d have to agree.

Congratulations, Jeremy and Jackqueline! I hope you two are having the best time in Europe!!

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Jen and Will were married on a gorgeous Spring day in Dana Point at St. Edward Catholic Church, followed by a really lovely reception at El Adobe in San Juan Capistrano. You may remember these two from their Santa Monica engagement session. I was very excited for this wedding because Jen and Will are nice and genuine people who I enjoyed being around. I knew their wedding day was going to be awesome, and I wasn’t disappointed – this couple’s family and friends are just as awesome as they are and it was a genuine pleasure to spend such a happy day with all of them! Special thanks to Jen Lauren Grant for acting as my second shooter – she ROCKED it and I was so happy to have her there. Now, on to the day…

We met up with Jen first just as she was getting the finishing touches put on her make-up.

On the other side of the hotel, Will was getting dressed with a little help from his friends…

The view from the church was amazing – such a perfect day for a wedding!

I love this next shot of Will and Jen right as they excited the church after the ceremony. Look at the joy on their faces!

There was an amazing Rolls Royce waiting for them outside of the church. The driver had champagne on the ready!

Jen and Will’s wedding party was a lot of fun. When I was setting up this next shot I told the guys this was their band photo so they needed to look “cool.” I think they got it right.

And for the ladies, their inspiration was Sex and the City. Again – nailed it!

We eventually headed to San Juan Capistrano for some portraits of the newlyweds. This was their first bit of quiet time together as husband and wife, which is why I think a lot of people enjoy the portraits part of the day. Just the bride, the groom and a photographer or two. It makes for a pretty relaxed time.

My favorite detail of this wedding were the vintage apple crate labels that Jen and Will collected to use as table names. I saw the real ones in person at their engagement session and they were pretty large so they had the ingenious idea of scanning them and shrinking them down to a better size. I thought they looked great mounted on thin sheets of wood and now they still have the real labels to remember the day by! The lovely arrangements and bouquets were done by The Flower Girl.

I love this shot of Will and Jen at their entrance into the reception. Will looks super proud about that wife he snagged.

So, the thing about this reception is it became very clear that these two people are very, very loved. Their friends and family were genuinely excited and happy for them. I caught Will wiping away tears several times that night and it was really moving to be there to capture all of tears and laughter. Some of Will and Jen’s friends put together a slide show for them and they both watched the entire thing while laughing through tears of joy. Moments like that remind me why I love my job so much.

I’ll leave you with these two shots of some of the amazing kids at this wedding. They could DANCE. They put every adult in the room to shame and I fell in love with every single kid on the dance floor that night. They should be at every wedding reception ever! I’m sure the awesome tunes DJ Chris of Elegant Event Entertainment had a lot to do with the awesome moves we were seeing.

Congratulations, Jen and Will! It was truly an honor to share in this day with you, your family and your friends. I hope you two are having an amazing honeymoon!

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