…and amazing HENNA!

It is such an honor to be asked to photograph another artist’s (and vendor in the event business) very special day!  Leighsa Montrose, the beautifully kind, sweet and huge talent behind Branch Out Floral & Event Designs, renewed her vows this past April 22, 2010, EARTH DAY!  The celebration took place with close friends and family at the Swedenborgian Church in the Pacific Heights neighborhood of San Francisco.

Leighsa and her husband originally exchanged vows in Hawaii so they brought in some traditional Hawaiian leis to incorporate this detail.  I think her henna work took something like 6 hours and was done all freehand by Bay Area henna artist, Kamala Chandrasekhar of Henna World.

So, as expected, the floral details were absolutely beautiful, so artistic and unique.  Leighsa’s bridal bouquet was an amazing pop of orange pincushion protea flowers accented with chocolate fiddlehead fronds and peacock feathers.  Even the stems of the flowers were tucked into a cone which was expertly dressed in earth-toned feathers and 3 brass bumble bees topped off the finishing touches.

Bride and groom arrived in style in a 1964 Ford Custom 500 which was built for the Fire Chief!  Dear Car, I love you.

Thank you so much, Leighsa!  I am looking forward to sharing some photos from an entirely different wedding that I had the pleasure of working on with Leighsa which took place at Nestldown in the Santa Cruz mountains…soon soon.

As promised, I am sharing more photos from this beautiful, romantic day in Mexico…

Kim & Milton shared a very special and intimate wedding ceremony in Mexico.  Geographic distances between families prevented them from having a joint wedding with the “normal” guest list of special characters.  So, after a small legal ceremony and dinner with (some) family in their hometown several months before, they flew to their destination wedding (and honeymoon) in Cuixmala, Mexico to complete their marriage celebration by exchanging rings for the first time and sharing their handwritten vows with one another.

Having photographed a good share of intimate weddings and elopements, I’ve got to say that there is something really nice about that certain “quieting” of the day…most especially felt with elopements.  What is taking place before me and my camera seems that much more intense and present.  I was talking with a friend the other day about that magic feeling of walking in fresh fallen snow.  The world is more quiet and there is some intangible, heightened experience of being witness to what is around oneself.  That is how I felt for Kim & Milton’s wedding– no other distractions of the day, just the two of them, their dynamic love together and the beauty that is Cuixmala.

We started at La Loma, the mansion set up on the bluff overlooking the Pacific, for preparations and made our way slowly to the beach with some portraits in between.

From the loveliest bride, Kim:  “Once we decided that we were going to forgo a traditional wedding in the U.S. with guests, we started looking all over the world for a dream destination. Since a big wedding was out, we could splurge on a luxurious location just about anywhere. We searched the web and travel magazines and somehow stumbled upon Cuixmala in Costalegre, Jalisco, Mexico. It was exactly what we had in mind – secluded, private, luxurious, tropical, and stunningly beautiful.  We love the ocean, nature, wildlife, delicious food, art and architecture.  Cuixmala had it all and in every way it exceeded our expectations.  The property is stunningly diverse. The large estate has fields of zebras and antelopes, palm trees and organic gardens, miles of raw beach with crashing waves, small secluded bays with calm and breathtaking beaches.  It is amazing and made our wedding celebration extraordinary. Finding just the right artist to capture such a special time for us was so important to us!  Kate Webber, our wedding photographer was a dream come true!  Initially, I had hesitations about having a photographer from the U.S. come to Mexico with us because we didn’t even have family coming, but it was THE best decision!  Kate is so incredibly sweet, not to mention astonishingly talented!  She was like a bridesmaid to me (I’m so grateful) and her photographs continue to blow us away!  She captured the textures, warmth, colors, and beauty of Cuixmala and the tenderness and joy of our wedding perfectly.”

Friends frequently ask me with a quizzical head tilt why I would be shooting an elopement.  They’ll comment, “but aren’t they supposed to be surprises, unplanned?”  No, many elopements are not all fly by the seat of your pants dashes down the aisle.  Your wedding is your wedding– you can celebrate it in whatever way appeals to both of you most.  Sure, that’s easier said than done, but when it all boils down, your wedding is a celebration however and with whomever you want it to be.  So while an elopement may seem less conventional, its still a great celebration and if you have selected a special location to exchange vows, it makes a lot of sense to get great photo memories of that unique day for yourselves to look back on and share with family and friends!

Three photos up:  waves crashing photo by the very talented Brian Holliday!  This wedding was previously published on Style Me Pretty.  You can view even more photos from this wedding in the gallery link there.  To see some travel-lifestyle photos from my previous trip there, go here.

Its tough to even know where to start in telling you what an absolutely perfect experience was had with Kim & Milton for their stunningly beautiful destination wedding in Cuixmala, Mexico!  So, until I can get more photos up for you to view on here, please head over to Style Me Pretty to see the wonderfully kind feature they put together on this gorgeous day.

Muchas gracías to SMP for the nicest words about these photos and for sharing this intimate wedding story!  So lovely!

…promise to post more from this destination wedding soon.

Divina & Tyler’s beautiful and classic San Francisco wedding is featured on The Bride’s Cafe today!

Divina & Tyler were married at Grace Cathedral on Nob Hill and celebrated the evening just across the way at the Mark Hopkins Hotel.  Congratulations to Divina & Tyler!

To see some fun from their engagement shoot, go here…more wedding photos and details below.

A fantastic team helped make this day all the more beautiful…

Coordination:  A Savvy Event;  Floral:  Michael Daigian Design;   Invitations:  Peculiar Pair Press;   Venues:  Grace Cathedral & the Mark Hopkins Hotel;    Dress: LOCAL SF couture designer: Jinza Couture Bridal;   Linens:  La Tavola Linens;   Band:  Cold Shot;   DJ : DJ Sam Isaac

…letterpress invitations by Peculiar Pair Press and elegant floral by Michael Daigian Designs.

I love the Assyrian wedding ceremony tradition of the Crowning of the Bride & Groom!

Niki & Skye celebrated an intimate wedding with family and close friends this past winter…

Niki has great style and went with a cool, classic veil, short wedding dress by Vera Wang and black Kate Spade heels.  Both super talented AND super sweet, Stacy McClure was on-hand for some bridal beauty prep!  Oh, lovely, indeed.

Niki’s mom wore a custom wedding hat, in proper British wedding tradition, topped off with black and pink feathers.  Also a British wedding custom, the bride was gifted “lucky” horseshoes for her wedding day!

Besides bride & mom’s beautiful outfits, another aspect I loved about this day was the change up in locations– the difference between classic San Francisco wedding venues, like the Fairmont Hotel and San Francisco City Hall, and our ending location, an alley of graffiti– which made for a nice balance of interests and personalities.

Natalie Bowen Designs put together an absolutely perfect bouquet of red roses, too!

…a farewell shot, courtesy of my beloved Holga.

Congratulations, Niki & Skye!

A bit of fun news that I am so happy to share…Apple has chosen a selection of photos from Jen & Paxton’s “Sonoma Wedding” and is using them on in-store demos for the brand new iPads!  So, if you happen to be checking out one of the newest additions to the Apple line, anywhere Apple products are sold, you may see some familiar pictures!  Very exciting!

Thanks, Apple!  To see more from this beautiful wedding, go here and here.

Everybody come together – FREE – Everybody get together

Just fall in love when you sing your song on the…
Take a chance
True Romance, when you dance

excerpts from “Free” by Cat Power

The swings will do that– make you feel free.  We rode this at a County Fair on our friend Justin’s birthday.  Free feels nice.  Just a kind thought for your Tuesday afternoon.  Carry on.

The lovely ladies at Style Me Pretty have Emilie & Gray’s wedding featured today on the blog.

This relaxed and fun wedding was held at a private residence in Sonoma, Little House Weddings.  It maintained a very easy going, fresh feel not only in the spirit of the day but also with the muted softness of grays and whites along with the bright pop of yellow sprinkled throughout.  Quite nice, quite nice, indeed.  Please check out the post here for more details!

Coordination:  Denise Kramer Weddings

Catering:  Park Avenue Catering

Dessert: Sweet Peony Cakes

Floral: Dragonfly Floral

For more fun from this great couple, go here to see my previous post from Emilie & gray’s engagement shoot.

The kind ladies behind the series of Style Unveiled sites pulled together a lovely and (always) informative Real Wedding post on their San Francisco site (link to it here) for Julia & Mark’s wedding!  They happen to have a very cute story.  Thanks so much for sharing this, Style Unveiled!

Here is a link to my previous post on Julia & Mark’s Gold Country themed wedding.

Admittedly, I’m not big on the whole Valentine’s Day push.  That said, its not such a terrible thing to more thoughtfully recognize the presence of love, in general.  So with that, have a loverly weekend, all.