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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You may remember Annie, Gero and their dog, Marty, from their sweet engagement session in Santa Monica at the house where Annie grew up. Annie and Gero choose to see each other before the ceremony so we’d have plenty of time for portraits, and  even Marty made a quick appearance at the wedding for a sweet wedding-day family photo.

Venue: The Victorian, Santa Monica, Calif.
Coordinators: Paola Carpintero & Melinda Barajas of onefourthree Events
Bouquets and boutonnieres: Ann’s Flowers
Centerpieces: DIY by the Groom
Cake/Cupcakes: {love+cupcakes}
Acoustic Guitar: Buzz Gravelle
DJ: DJ Evil One

Annie’s dress was absolutely gorgeous and my favorite part was the flower details on the back, shown below. The boutonnieres and bouquets were made by Ann’s Flowers. The stems of Annie’s bouquet were wrapped in one of her mom’s handkerchiefs.

Their ceremony was lovely and personal, including readings from seven friends and family members.

The reception room looked gorgeous and the succulent centerpieces, handmade by Gero himself, looked amazing.

Loved the adorable cupcake and cake display by {love+cupcakes}. You really can never go wrong with cupcakes.

Annie’s sister and brother were the Maid of Honor and Best Man, respectively. The two of them gave a joint speech that was really funny and also very sweet. Yay, family.

After dinner and toasts, Annie and Gero invited their guests upstairs where a dance floor and DJ Evil One were waiting to get the party started right. Annie and Gero had their first dance to one of my favorite songs of all time, “Lovely Day” by Bill Withers.

This was probably one of the best dance parties I’ve been to. These people know how to party.

Congratulations, Annie and Gero! Thank you so much for allowing me to be a part of your incredible day. Wishing the two of you (and Marty!) a lifetime of happiness together!

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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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Instead of calling this list The 20 Best Christmas Songs Ever, maybe I should call it 10 Great Christmas Songs, Plus 10 More That Are Kind Of About Christmas, but that doesn’t quite roll off the tongue. You see, I happen to really love Christmas music. Even the most played out Christmas songs make me giddy with excitement when they come on the radio. There’s a station here in LA that plays ALL CHRISTMAS MUSIC ALL THE TIME for the entire month of December. And I think it’s the greatest thing ever.

Chris, on the other hand, is not a fan. We suspect it’s because he grew up singing in childrens’ chorales and A Capella groups. Thus, he was forced to sing Christmas song after Christmas song over and over again every. single. December. I guess I can see why he’d grow a distaste for the genre, but I can’t see myself ever tiring of the holly, jolly tunes that I love so. Luckily, Chris is a good and patient husband and indulges me for at least 20 minutes when we’re in the car together. He’ll watch me hop and bop around in my seat while I sing along to all of the classics. And he’ll only roll his eyes once or twice.

This year Chris decided we should make a mixtape together. Chris loves making mixtapes. It’s the indie-rock college kid in him that will never die, I guess. We have done what we call “bounce mixes” from time to time where one of us will choose the first song and the other will choose the second song. We go like that until we have a full mix. It’s pretty fun! I chose 10 of my favorite Christmas songs and Chris alternated his “not-really-Christmas-music” Christmas songs. The result? The 20 Best Christmas Songs Ever!

We enjoyed making this mix so much that I wanted to share it with all of you! Have a listen and let me know what you think! It totally succeeded in getting me in the Christmas spirit and I hope it does the same for you! If you want to open a fancy flash version of the playlist in a new window, CLICK HERE. Or, you can just keep this window open and press play below (it’s a large file so it takes a while to start playing).

Here’s the playlist:

Christmas (Please Come Home) – Darlene Love
The Tip of the Iceberg – Owl City
Wonderful Christmastime – Paul McCartney
Everything Is One Big Christmas Tree – The Magnetic Fields
Christmas Wrapping – The Waitresses
Donde Estas Santa Claus – Augie Rios
I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus – The Jackson 5
Winter Wooksie – Belle & Sebastian
Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree – Brenda Lee
Holiday Road – Matt Pond PA
All I Want For Christmas Is You – Mariah Carey
Put The Lights On The Tree – Sufjan Stevens
Last Christmas – Wham!
What the Snowman Learned About Love – Stars
Santa Claus Is Coming to Town – Bruce Springsteen
Santa’s Beard – They Might Be Giants
Santa Baby – Eartha Kitt
White Winter Hymnal – Fleet Foxes
Baby, It’s Cold Outside – Zooey Deschanel & Leon RedBone
Taking Down the Tree – Low

Happy Holidays!

Here are a few of my favorites from the day.

After they were dressed, the ladies toasted to Melissa with some sparkling cider. The flower girl threw a few back to loosen up.

I love the sunshine that’s raining on the girls in this one.

On the grounds there was this one tree that stood out. It was different than the rest – maybe Maple? All of the leaves had turned so it looked like it was on fire with reds, oranges and yellows emanating from its leaves. Loved it so much.

Melissa looked so gorgeous and she was so fun to photograph!

And BJ wasn’t looking so bad himself!

I loved all of the Fall elements of this wedding. Melissa, BJ and their families had been collecting these leaves for months leading up to the wedding. I thought that was such a cool touch!

I honestly will never get over the way a bride and groom look at each other during their ceremony. There is something so special about it. Gets me every time.

Melissa had this idea of their bridal party throwing leaves on them while they shared a kiss. Who doesn’t love playing in leaves!?

Heather and I got to spend tons of time with Melissa and BJ for portraits. We got to take full advantage of the beautiful grounds the venue provided.

Heather and I were shocked when the owner of the venue walked over while we were shooting and said that no other photographer had ever utilized the forest area for portraits. It was a MUST for us, we couldn’t believe we were the first!

There was an awesome tree swing (of course – with that many trees, how could there not be a tree swing!) and Melissa and BJ were totally down for some tree swinging action. It. Was. Awesome.

Congratulations to Melissa and BJ and a big thank you again to Heather for having me along!

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These two have only been engaged for maybe about a month or so and they are getting married in January. For those trying to do the math, that’s a very short engagement! I’ve decided this is the way to go – they only have to deal the stress of planning a wedding for a few months and then they’re done! They get to live in wedded bliss and never have to plan another wedding again. I think many of us can definitely see the appeal in that.

It was a beautiful day for an engagement session when we met last week. I was just coming down with what I would find out later was the flu, but I was having so much fun with these two that I really forgot how crappy I was feeling. That’s how you know you’ve had a successful shoot. Free is a graphic designer and is using several of the photos from this session for their wedding invitation – he even sent me the mock up already and it looks fantastic! I love, love, LOVE when couples use their engagement photos in creative ways and I can’t wait to see the printed version of the invite suite.

Here are a few of my favorites from our time spent at the observatory.

In this next one, they are standing in the same exact spot where Free proposed. Cute!

After a while Emily and Free changed into something a little more casual, after which I promptly made them roll around in the grass.

Thank you Emily and Free for a fun couple of hours! I am so looking forward to your wedding day!

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I met up with Erik and his guys at a nearby hotel while they were getting ready. I think Erik was nervous, but his buddies distracted him with jokes and fake mustaches to relax him a bit.

When we got to the venue, I joined Jenny in the bridal dressing room while Lara got ready. Lara was a gorgeous looking bride and paid attention to every last detail – the dress, jewelry, birdcage veil – it was all amazing!

Lara made sure her ladies were dressed to the nines, as well. I adored the necklaces she gave them as a gift. Gorgeous!

Love this shot of Lara and her dad trying to sneak a peek at Erik waiting at the altar.

One of my favorite parts of a wedding ceremony is the way the bride and groom look at each other. Almost like they’re seeing one another for the first time again.

And then there’s that “Married!” moment – that’s always a good one…

I think this first dance shot is one of my favorites ever. Such a sweet moment.

It was a beautiful day for a beautiful wedding with a gorgeous bride and beaming groom. Thanks to Jenny for having me along and a heartfelt congratulations to Lara and Erik!

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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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It’s definitely out of the norm for me to blog images the day they were taken, but I wanted to rest up before the wedding and there’s not much else to do in this hotel room, so of course I had to spend the evening processing photos.

I went to the wedding venue to check out the grounds while Dorie, John and their wedding party were there rehearsing. I can’t wait for the real event!

I loved the details Dorie and her mom put together for the dinner. All of the tablecloths are vintage and belonged to Dorie’s grandmother. They were beautiful and were such a great way to personalize the tables.

Here’s Dorie doing her best Elvis impersonation

But then this guy tried to show her up. I have to admit, he gets extra points for the outfit.

I discovered babies are skeptical of Elvis impersonators. Go figure.

John is a musician – as are several of his friends – so to close the evening out, guests were treated to some acoustic songs by candlelight. Even though it was pitch black out, I purposely didn’t use my flash in order to capture the mood and ambiance of this impromptu concert.

Dorie’s dad was totally feeling it.

I am so excited for Dorie and John’s wedding tomorrow – it’s gonna be amazing!

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So, I am forced to blog a sneak peek image of a post that is coming tomorrow. I can’t help it! I can’t write a post to my photo blog without a photo! Besides, the sneak peek isn’t for a client, it’s for my best friend. I wasn’t her photographer, I was just a bystander with a camera so technically this sneak peek doesn’t count.

I was listening to my iTunes playlist, as I am wont to do on a day like today, and a song came on that I love. I’ve listened to this song at least a hundred times before, but I never really paid attention to the lyrics. Well, I must have been subconsciously waiting for the day they would really resonate because today I paid attention, and the timing couldn’t have been more perfect.

I wanted to put a snippet of those lyrics here for safe keeping. The song is “Give A Little Love” by Noah and the Whale.

Well if you are (what you love)
And you do (what you love)
I will always be the sun and moon to you
And if you share (with your heart)
Yeah, you give (with your heart)
What you share with the world is what it keeps of you

And now I’ll leave you with that sneak peek I mentioned. My beautiful friend married the love of her life. It was a very special day and I was so grateful to be a part of it.