Doug & Christen did not kiss until their wedding day! Dara & I tried that but made it only as far as our engagement. Do you know how hard that is to do!? Kudos!
This castle is a private residence, not usually used for weddings. So, being a part of one held there was a huge honor!
We had a blast – and Aliyah joined us ! Check out the behind the scenes photos at the end.
Check out this castle, before and after sunset:
Ahh – these are some of our favorites of all time!
The view was amazing!
Behind the Scenes:
Doug & Christen were so kind as to invite our little Aliyah to come along! They even provided a babysitter for us – isn’t that awesome? Here is a one of Aliyah and I dancing during the reception:
I showed this photo of Aliyah (left) to Dara and it made her smile like this (right). Love it!
As always, a huge THANK YOU goes out to Doug and Christen! We wish you the best honeymoon and can’t wait to hang with you guys as a married couple!
Love,
Austin, Da(baby)ra, & Aliyah yes, if you didn’t catch that: we are pregnant!
Andy was one of Dara’s best friends in high school, and getting to know Rachel and their families has been incredible. The fact that their wedding was in Yosemite National Park was a triple bonus: epic family vacation, no cell phone coverage or internet, and quality time with friends! It couldn’t have been better (well aside from the no hot water thing.. haha).
All the guests stayed at the Wawona for the weekend, and at night a group of us would hang out around a hidden campfire site that a cool member of the staff showed us.
The ceremony was just outside of the Ahwahnee hotel in Yosemite Valley, where the traffic sucked but the view made it all worth it! The reception was back at the Wawona, where we were just a few feet from our hotel rooms. The food was delish, the drinks were cold, and everyone was so relaxed.
Afterward, we stayed a few extra days to enjoy the sights and take advantage of the group camping spot that the family had reserved. We had the whole site to ourselves! Hopefully, we’ll get to post some of those personal photos soon…
Josh & Rebecca, the makers of the the documentary Fuel had a beautiful wedding at the Four Seasons Biltmore here in Santa Barbara. They went to great lengths to make sure that their wedding was as Green as possible, and it was awesome to be a part of it.
They were married on New Year’s day, and had a red/white feather theme which all worked together gorgeously.
I was looking through a wedding from last year that I shot along side our good friend AVG, and realized that I hadn’t blogged any of them! So here is one of my favorites from the day, and hopefully it will inspire me to post more. This is Tina, getting into a limo just after marrying Jimmy at St. Sophia’s Greek Orthodox church down in Santa Monica. That was a rad wedding… Yeah, I definitely need to get some more of these up!
Michael and Jonna eloped to Santa Barbara from Finland, and got married today!
What follows has got to be our all-time favorite wedding moment of all time (on video), and a teaser from the photos we shot today….
Quick backstory: Mike & Jonna met in a bar a few years ago in Finland and they both distinctly remember the song “One” by U2 was playing in the background….
After the ceremony today, as we walked around the Santa Barbara Courthouse, a band doing a sound check in the Sunken Gardens for tomorrow’s Easter service began playing a song and we suggested that they dance to it for a few photos! You see where this is going?!!
As the words “One love,” were sung, Michael and Jonna looked at eachother in surprise and excitement – it was THEIR SONG!
We started this video just moments after their song began:
At the end, you can hear the band congratulate the couple and it was then that Michael realized we had set it up! I had asked our assistant Tabitha to sneak over and request the song as I kept the newlyweds distracted in photo mode.
They hadn’t planned on having a first dance, but how cool is that!? Side note: if you are one of those musicians that I talked to afterward, make sure to say what’s up in the comments – you are amazing.
*Update* The musicians were Aaron Shust and Duffy James!
Here is one of our favorites from the day taken at the pier during our photo excursion around town:
M&J, we hope you a safe and amazing trip home! Thanks for an amazing experience
! Check out the behind the scenes photos at the end.
