Real Wedding: Jessica and Derrick

I admit it.  I'm a wedding photo junkie.  I adore it when my customers send me pictures of their own weddings.  Love it.  LOVE.  And while those are the best, the weddings that I know I had a small hand in creating, I don't stop there.  I lurk on wedding photography forums (fabulous place to learn so much about photography, by the way).  I eagerly await new content on several photographers' blogs.

Tony Hoffer is one of those photographers.  Every wedding he captures is so brilliantly composed, so beautifully full of light and color.   I'm delighted to present this wedding of Jessica and Derrick, gorgeously captured by Hoffer Photography.

I love this moment from the first look--and the bridesmaid peeking out the door behind!

Love the ivory and gold tones in this wedding!  So elegant, so perfect for fall or winter.

The color!  The joy!  What a perfectly captured moment.

This next element is my favorite thing from the wedding.  The bride made this photo wall herself!    Looks like a really amazing way to honor family history and show off old family wedding photos, right?

But wait, there's more!  It's also the most completely awesome photo booth prop I've ever seen!  LOVE this!

To see many more pictures from this wedding, and many other equally stunning affairs, please visit Tony Hoffer's blog.  Even if you're not a wedding picture junkie like I am, you'll appreciate the magnificent photos and amazing emotion captured by this talented photographer.

Real Wedding: Christina and Paul (An Amazing Rainy Wedding)

You've been planning your wedding for more than a year.  You've thought through every detail a hundred times. The beautiful park setting.  The dresses.  The shoes (ok, so maybe you've thought of the shoes a thousand times).  And when the day comes, it's raining.  This was not your vision.

It's going to happen to some percentage of brides.  It just is.  Rain will fall.

Luckily, a rainy wedding can be just as special, spectacular, and beautiful as a sunny one, especially if you have a gifted photographer like Tacoma, Washington based Sergio Mottola.

Check out these pictures from Christina and Paul's amazing, glorious, absolutely beautiful and decidedly wet outdoor wedding.

Since I built a wood-fired oven in my backyard, I think it's going to be a rule of this blog that if a wedding features a WFO, I'm going to feature it.  Delicious, beautiful food is always worth showing.  ;-)

Check out the full wedding post on Sergio's Blog.  Many more gorgeous pictures there, from this wedding and many others.  You'll be glad you did!

Real Wedding: Rachel and Jay

Some weddings are so beautiful the images just stop you in your tracks.  That's what happened the first time I saw the very first image from Rachel and Jay's wedding.  I had to see more.  The vibrant color, the fabulous blend of rural beauty and city sophistication, the tiny touches that make a wedding truly unique and special.  Check it out!

Can you believe the sunflower field shots weren't planned?  The photographer spotted them on the drive to the ceremony!  I could hardly believe it when looking at all those vibrant yellow details at the wedding.  What luck--and what a lucky couple to have such an observant, thoughtful photographer!    All photos were taken by the talented Kansas City based Sarah Dickerson.  Please go check out the full set of Rachel and Jay's wedding photos on her blog, where you'll find many more (and bigger!) pictures of this wedding (and a bunch of other great photos, as well).

2 Great Photographers + 1 Wedding = A Gorgeous Case Study

Have you ever wondered what it would be like if a different photographer covered a wedding?  What difference does a particular photographer's vision, style, equipment, and post processing really make?  Most of the time, we'd never know.  We could try to imagine, but those qualities are ephemeral, hard to grasp, especially for a bride and groom who are perhaps working with a professional photographer for the first time.

I want to show you something.  What if two exceptional, world-class photographers covered the same wedding?  What if they used different equipment, different methods?  What if we could see the same subject through the eyes (and lenses) of two different, but equally amazing artists?

It doesn't happen often.  But it happened this past spring, and I'm lucky enough to get to show you.

On a glorious spring day in Sonoma Valley, Jennifer and Eric got married.  And I believe that they may have been the luckiest couple on the planet, because two of my very favorite wedding photographers photographed their wedding.  Sam Hassas was hired by the couple, and his friend and fellow wedding photographer, Evan Baines, flew in from Tennessee to shoot alongside Sam.

Sam shot digital, full of saturated color and movement.  Very Sam Hassas.

Evan took the opportunity to shoot entirely in black and white film (yes, film!), adopting a very photo-journalistic style.  Evan is a master at capturing moments and emotions, and this set is very, very Evan Baines.

I've written enough.  Check out these pictures!

The astoundingly beautiful, incredibly lucky Jennifer and Eric, as captured by Sam Hassas:

You know I'm a sucker for those floating veil shots.

You have to go check out the full set on Sam's blog!  

Now on to the coverage from the equally exceptional Evan Baines:

Check out the full set on Evan's blog--you'll be glad you did!

There you are.  Two amazing photographers.  Two different mediums.  Two different styles.  The same story, told so beautifully, two different ways.

Many, many thanks to Sam and Evan for graciously allowing me to feature this wedding and their photography.

One Reason to Wear a Veil: The Flying Veil Shot

Despite the fact that I was a veil and tiara designer when I got engaged, I originally didn't want a veil.  It just didn't fit with my mental image of Me As Bride.

Then I found THE dress.

And I tried on a veil.

And I was hooked.

There's something that feels so incredibly special, so incredibly bridal about wearing a veil.   You might have other opportunities to wear marvelous dresses, fancy jewelery, hair accessories, heart-stoppingly-amazing shoes.  But a veil?  That's really a wedding-only deal.

And by far, once of the things I love most about veils is the opportunity to get those fabulous photographs of veils caught in the wind.  The fabric--whether it's bridal illusion or the finest silk tulle--is so light and ethereal.  It might be a gust of wind or a bit of the craft of a skilled photographer,  but a veil caught in the wind can elevate a moment into dramatic capture of the fleeting, effervescent joy that is a wedding.

Here are just a few examples of what I mean.

From the brilliant Ed Pingol, a true master of light and these types veil shots:

Ok, so this last one from Ed isn't actually a veil, but it's an amazing shot, and it demonstrates the same principle!

From the amazing Craig Carpenter of Luster Studios, check out these photographs from Abby and Sean's wedding.  Aren't the moments just stylish, crisp captures of absolute joy?

Or these dramatic, artistic shots from photographer Rene Gaviola:

Short or long, silk or nylon, it doesn't matter.  I never get tired of seeing the unique drama that a veil can add to a wedding.