Anna + Mario {sonoma county engagement photos}

I had such a fun time photographing this couple! I think we laughed the entire time! Engagement photography is more about capturing the love between two people than it is about just getting a couple nice poesy portraits. Anna and Mario made it so easy! And every time I showed them a picture on the screen Mario would say "WOW! you look so HOT babe!" It was so cute to watch!!
All of these images were taken on the property of Anna's Parents up in Healdsburg! It was absolutely gorgeous!!! The weather was all too perfect! It was in the high 70s and there were these huge gorgeous clouds! We got so lucky and the clouds just happened to line up perfectly to shade the valley below and a thin cloud moved in front of the sun so I had Anna and Mario run out in front of the gorgeous view and we took advantage of the 2 minutes of perfect cloud alignment!!!!!!!

Ron + Sam {Sonoma County Wedding, Hyatt Vineyard Creek Wedding, Cowboy boot Wedding}

I met Sam at the Sonoma Bridal Show back when she was Samantha Jones! (Great name right????) Sam and Ron got married at the Hyatt Vineyard Creek in Downtown Santa Rosa which is a gorgeous hotel! This wedding was a BLAST! Just a great time all around! The Bride and Groom were laid back, ready to have fun, and trusted me to get creative and get some fun non-traditional images! The Bridal Party was equally as fun and open to do whatever we asked! I think you will see that in the images! I have to give lots of credit to my 2nd photographer for the wedding, Maria Villano. She took several of the images below!







notice that the best man is loosing it! The couple both said they had it together until they saw him crying! and look closely at the picture of "the kiss" Sam couldn't get the ring on so she really forced it on and by the time they got to the kiss her finger was purple!! I will photoshop that for a nice portrait but we have to keep that one, what a funny memory it will be! and that bottom picture of Sam and Ron was of them after the ceremony where the coordinator had them wait until we were ready for their family pictures. So glad I caught such a sweet moment!






I love this....the Speakes generation photo, The "Ron's"


we went outside during the reception to take some fun off the cuff pictures! These girls were a crack up!

then I caught the guys as they were going outside for a cigar!

MOTHER'S DAY SPECIAL!

So I've tried to find time to do a Mother's Day mini session prior to Mother's Day but I just can't seem to find a weekend that works for everyone so I've come up with the next best thing! Buy that special Mom in your life a gift certificate for a Mother's Day Package. This way she can be apart of the photo shoot and you can choose the time of year and location that you want! There are 3 packages to choose from! 2 with the family in mind and 1 designed for those families out there that want to get everyone together for one large shoot for Grandma!
Due to limited time slots available this spring and summer I am only offering these specials to the first 5 people! The packages are prepaid gift certificates. You will receive a certificate with the details of the package you chose so you can include it in Mom's card or the certificate also comes with it's own envelope.

ONLY 5 OF THESE AVAILABLE! SEND ME AN EMAIL TO RESERVE ONE! JENNIFERBAGWELLPHOTOGRAPHY@YAHOO.COM OR CALL ME 707-235-7088

Package 1-$250
1 hour session for up to 6 people
5 gift prints (8x10 or smaller-4x6 prints equal 1 gift print)
25 digital files formatted for personal websites, blogs, or networking sites such as facebook

Package 2-$375
1 hour session for up to 6 people
6x8 30 page custom designed album
8 gift prints
15 full resolution images on a CD with a signed print release
25 digital files formatted for personal websites, blogs, or networking sites such as facebook

Package 3-$450
LARGE FAMILY PACKAGE
This session includes 2 hours broken down to accommodate 1 large family portrait, up to 5 individual family portraits with 3-5 different posses for each family (should take about 1 hour 15 min) the remaining 45 min will be used for any additional shots you would like such as Grandma with all the Grandchildren, all the kids, all the adult siblings, each child individually, etc. After the large portrait and individual family portraits are all taken the remaining time is your choice! **the time frame given is an estimate. The actual time it takes for each portion of the shoot depends on the group. If more time is taken there will be less time at the end for additional shots but if less time is taken for the group shots then the extra time will be used to get fun creative shots of whomever you'd like!
package includes:
2 hour photo session
6x8 30 page custom designed album
8 gift prints
CD with 15 full resolution images and a signed print release
25 digital images formatted for the web
--additional albums may be purchased a a special Mother's Day Special price $175 per album regularly price $250
--additional digital images can be added to the cd 15 images for $50

***all packages include travel of up to 20 miles from Petaluma. You can choose your favorite location or even a few locations! or I have several wonderful spots that represent a wide variety of different styles that I can suggest if you need help deciding on a good location.
*****Packages 1 and 2 can be used for anytype of shoot for up to 6 people. It can be a family shoot, a Mommy and me shoot, a shoot with just the kids, etc. I have letters that spell Mommy or Love to make a cute collage pictures. The shoot is entirely up to you as long as it fits into an hour!

Why I love weddings.......

Ok so as I'm sitting here picking out photos to post on my blog to show off the Speakes Wedding I shot last weekend I found myself pulling photos that I would normally not use for a blog post. Blog post photos are usually just a hand full of the best pictures from the wedding which are typically the portraits and an occasional ceremony or reception photo. But primarily the portraits are the ones that get shown off on the blog. But with the Speakes Wedding, and many others, I capture things that I love to see and I know the couple do as well. Kids dancing, old people dancing, and people acting a fool! I thought I'd share a few photos that help illustrate just a few of the MANY reasons why I LOVE LOVE LOVE weddings!

First of all this woman, Ron's Grandma, I LOVE HER! She's my hero! I've already explained in a previous blog one reason and here is another, she doesn't care that she uses a walker and 2 strapping young men just to walk...she saw her Husband out on the dance floor handling two women so she got up and clapped along with the music! Cheerin him on! The picture to the right I love because Samantha isn't stressed out that its her wedding day and it all needs to be prim and proper. She is out on the side of the hotel enjoying some indulgences with her new Husband. Who doesn't love a stogie, death in taxes (a local beer), and wedding cake????

I just love to see families who really love each other. They danced to the entire song like that! Just really cute! and come on, what little girl doesn't remember dancing with their Dad, Grandpa, Uncle, or special someone just like that, crushing his feet just to fancy dance!! and well come on, who doesn't love a baby in a tuxedo bib? Just had to throw that one in there! ..........ok and I wonder where my son get's it?? he is always saying "come on!" ...guess he gets it from me!

Niki + Mike {Petaluma engagement photos, Petaluma Family Photos}

I am seriously sooooo excited for Niki and Mike's wedding! Not only are they such an adorable family and are so in love but they are getting married at the Green Music Center at SSU! The place is almost as gorgeous as they are!
We were rained out of our first appointment for their engagement/family session but the second time was a charm for us! They wanted to incorporate their son in some of the pictures and have a family and engagement session. Could he be any cuter???????? Look at his hair!!!!!! and those Nike's!!!

Veronica + Gabe {Sonoma Engagement Photos, Benzinger Winery Photos, Firefighter engagement photos, fire house engagement photos}

-What a fun couple! We started this shoot off at the Downtown Sonoma Fire House. Gabe works there so we were able to open up the garage and take the pictures right there in front of the trucks! Veronica is so proud of what Gabe does and it showed! We had lots of fun taking those pictures! Gabe even gave me a little fire hat to bring home to my son! He was so so so excited! I came home from the shoot with cold stone for my "boys" and I also had the fire hat. Aidan grabbed it and smiled, then set it down and said ice cream?? ... a boy after my own heart! then the second he finished his ice cream he picked up the hat and put it on and ran around the house! Gotta hand it to him, he has his priorities in order!
After the fire house we just drove around Sonoma, Glen Ellen, and a few other little towns in that area. We stumbled upon Benzinger Winery and ended up staying there and walking all over the property. It was gorgeous there!
My favorite part of the shoot though was the very end. Gabe has this "Good Husband" thing down pat already! We were in the car a lot during the shoot driving from place to place but Gabe waited until we finished and headed back to the fire house to tune the radio to the Giants game! Not that I would have minded it earlier but he knew the photos were important to Veronica and he was focused right along with her!
I have a really hard time picking my favorites so there are quite a few here....ENJOY!

Albums and Reception Books {wedding albums, reception books, guest book alternatives, wedding guest book, photo album}

I just received a few books in the other day and thought I'd take a few pictures of them to share. The pictures don't do them justice! They are really amazing in person!

My new favorite album is the Pano Couture Album! It's a panoramic album that opens horizontally rather than vertically. They are unique and simply breathtaking!!! The pages are printed on either matte or glossy paper with vivid and bold archival inks. The covers are made with full photo wraps or 3/4 binding (shown in the photo below) which is 1/4 photo and 3/4 book cloth or exotic leather (pictured below).




I am still offering a beautiful 10x10 and 12x12 Bella Album but I changed binding vendors and am giddy like a school girl over the amazing quality!! There are a lot more customizable options including matte or glossy pages!


This is my reception book! It is printed on beautiful and bright matte pages, perfect for signatures with out smudging. The cover is made of gorgeous book cloth or shimmer book cloth with over 25 different colors to choose from! You can add a photo strip to the cover or embossing or both! It comes designed to accommodate up to 125 signatures and can be made into a 12x12 to accommodate 150 signatures or additional pages can be added to meet your guest count! If you anticipate less than 125 signatures I will design the pages utilizing more images on the pages reducing the amount of empty space. This book will be custom designed just for you!


There is one more album that I've added to my product list but I have not received the sample yet. So keep checking back, I will post pictures of it as soon as I receive it. Most likely mid-April. This album is the finest album I will offer. It is twice the thickness of any other album with all the same cover options as the Bella Album.
I've also added a new parent gift as a package add on! It is a DVD slideshow held in a DVD case that folds out to a 8,10, or 12 album. The DVD comes with a slip case as well for easy shelf storage. The sample album was shipped out yesterday and should be here early next week! I can't wait!!